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9 









t 




KING SOLOMON’S MINES 




WORKS BY H. RIDER HAGGARD 


PARLIAMENTARY BLUE-BOOK. 

Report to H.M/s Government on the Salvation 
Army Colonies in the United States, with Scheme 
OF National Land Settlement. [Cd. 2562] 

POLITICAL HISTORY.. 

Cetewayo and his White Neighbours. 


WORKS ON SOCIOLOGY, AGRICULTURE, 
AND COUNTRY LIFE. 


Rural England (2 vols.). 
Rural Denmark and its 
Lessons, 


A Gardener’s Year. 


The Poor and the Land. 
Regeneration. 

A Farmer’s Year. 


“ Mr. Rider Haggard is probably most widely known as a 
novelist, but, as a matter of fact, there are few men now writ- 
ing English whose books on vital sociological questions are of 
such value as his, and hardly one among this small number 
who has grasped as he has gasped the dangers that beset the 
' future of the English-speaking people, and the way these dan. 
g^rs can best be met.*'— Mr. Theodore Roosevelt in “ The Out* 
look," New York, July i, igi i. 


BOOK OF TRAVEL. 
A Winter Pilgrimage. 


NOVELS. 


Dawn. 

The Witch’s Head. 

Jess. 

Colonel Quaritch, V.C. 

The Way of 


Beatrice. 

Joan Haste, 
doctor Therne. 
Stella Fregelius. 
the Spirit. 


ROMANCES. 


Kino Solomon’s Mines. 

She. 

Ayesha: The Return of She. 
Allan Quatermain. 

Mr. Meeson’s Will. 
Allan’s Wife. 

Cleopatra. 

Eric Brighteyes. 

Nada the Lily. 
Montezuma’s Daughter. 
The People of the Mist. 
Heart of the World. 
Swallow. 

Marie. 

The Mahatma and the 
Hare. 

Allan and The Holy 
Flower. 

Finished. 

Moon of Israel. 


Black Heart and White 
Heart. 

Lysbeth. 

Pearl-Maiden. 

The Brethren. 

The Spirit of Bambatse 
(Benita). 

Margaret. 

The Ghost Kings. 

The Yellow God : An Idol 
OF Africa. 

Morning Star. 

The Lady op Blossholme. 

g uEEN Sheba’s Ring. 

ED Eve. 

Child of Storm. 

The Wanderer’s Necklace. 
The Ivory Child. 

Love Eternal. 

When the World Shook. 


(/« Collaooration with Andrew Lang) 

The World’s Desire. 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES 


A NotJfl 


^ V 

By H. rider haggard 

'\ 

AUTHOR OF “she” “jESS” ETC. 


NEW IMPRESSION 


LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 


FOUKTH AVENUE & 30th ST., NEWYORK 
1920 






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THE FAITHFUL BUT UNPEETENDING RECORD 
OP 

A REMARKABLE ADVENTURE 
IS HEREBY 

Eespectfulls CDebkaUb 

BY THE NARRATOR 

ALLAN QUATERMAIN 

TO ALL 

THE BIG AND LITTLE BOYS WHO READ IT 


9 


\ 


CONTENTS. 


•HAPTBR rA«l 

Introduction vii 

I. I Meet Sir Henry Curtis 1 

II. The Legend op Solomon’s Mines 13 

III. Umbopa Enters Our Service , . .25 

IV. An Elephant Hunt 39 

V. Our March into the Desert 51 

VI. Water! Water! 67 

VII. Solomon’s Road 81 

VIII. We Enter Kukuanaland .101 

IX. Twala, the King 112 

X. The Witch-hunt 128 

XI. We Give a Sign 144 

XH. Before the Battle 160 

XHI. The Attack 173 

XIV. The Last Stand of the Grays 184 

XV. Good Falls Sick 205 

XVI. The Place op Death 218 

XVII. Solomon’s Treasure-chamber 231 

XVIII. We Abandon Hope 245 

XIX. Ignosi’s Farewell . 258 

XX. Found 269 








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INTEODUCTION. 


Now that this book is printed, and about to be given to 
the world, the sense of its shortcomings, both in style and 
contents, weighs very heavily upon me. As regards the 
latter, I can only say that it does not pretend to be a full 
account of everything we did and saw. There are many 
things connected with our journey into Kukuanaland which 
I should have liked to dwell upon at length, and which 
have, as it is, been scarcely alluded to. Among these are 
the curious legends which I collected about the chain ar- 
mor that saved us from destruction in the great battle of 
Loo, and also about the silent ones ” or colossi at the 
mouth of the stalactite cave. Again, if I had given way 
to my own impulses I should have liked to go into the dif- 
ferences, some of which are to my mind very suggestive, 
between the Zulu and Kukuana dialects. Also a few pages 
might profitably have been given up to the consideration 
of the indigenous flora and fauna of Kukuanaland.* TheE 
there remains the most interesting subject — that, as it is, 

* I discovered eight varieties of antelope with which I was previously 
totally unacquainted, and many new species of plants, for the most part pf 
the bulbous tribe. — A. Q. 


viii 


INTRODUCTION. 


has only been incidentally alluded to — of the magnificent 
system of military organization in force in that country, 
which is, in my opinion, much superior to that inaugurated 
by Chaka in Zululand, inasmuch as it permits of even 
more rapid mobilization, and does not necessitate the em- 
ployment of the pernicious system of forced celibacy. And, 
lastly, I have scarcely touched on the domestic and family 
customs of the Kukuanas, many of which are exceedingly 
quaint, or on their proficiency in the art of smelting and 
welding metals. This last they carry to considerable per- 
fection, of which a good example is to be seen in their 
“tollas,” or heavy throwing - knives, the backs of these 
knives being made of hammered iron, and the edges of 
beautiful steel welded with great skill on to the iron backs. 
The fact of the matter is that I thought (and so did Sir 
Henry Curtis and Captain Good) that the best plan would 
be to tell the story in a plain, straightforward manner, and 
leave these matters to be dealt with subsequently in what- 
ever way may ultimately appear to be desirable. In the 
meanwhile I shall, of course, be delighted to give any in- 
formation in my power to anybody interested in such 
things. 

And now it only remains for me to offer my apologies 
for my blunt way of writing. I can only say in excuse for 
it that I am more accustomed to handle a rifie than a pen, 
and cannot make any pretence to the grand literary flights 
and flourishes which I see in novels — for I sometimes like 
to read a novel. I suppose they — the flights and flourishes 
— are desirable, and I regret not being able to supply them ; 


INTRODUCTION. 


ix 


but at the same time I cannot help thinking that simple 
things are always the most impressive, and books are easier 
to understand when they are written in plain language, 
though I have perhaps no right to set up an opinion on 
such a matter. ‘‘ A sharp spear,” runs the Kukuana say- 
ing, ‘‘ needs no polish and on the same principle I vent- 
ure to hope that a true story, however strange it may be, 
does not require to be decked out in fine words. 

Allan Quateemain. 


I 

) 

I 

1 


1 

1 


] 

3 

I 


4 

i 

I 


I 


1 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES 


CHAPTER I. 

I MEET SIR HENRY CURTIS. 

It is a curious thing that at my age — fifty-five last birth- 
day — I should find myself taking up a pen to try and write 
a history. I wonder what sort of a history it will be when 
I have done it, if I ever come to the end of the trip ! I 
have done a good many things in my life, which seems a 
long one to me, owing to my having begun so young, per- 
haps. At an age when other boys are at school I was earn- 
ing my living as a trader in the old Colony. I have been 
trading, hunting, fighting, or mining ever since. And yet 
it is only eight months ago that I made my pile. It is a 
big pile now I have got it — I don’t yet know how big — but 
I don’t think I would go through the last fifteen or six- 
teen months again for it ; no, not if I knew that I should 
come out safe at the end, pile and all. But then, I am a 
timid man, and don’t like violence, and am pretty sick of 
adventure. I wonder why I am going to write this book; 
it is not in my line. I am not a literary man, though very 
devoted to the Old Testament and also to the “ Ingoldsby 
Legends.” Let me try and set down my reasons, just to 
see if I have any. 

First reason : Because Sir Henry Curtis and Captain 
John Good asked me to. 

1 


2 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


Second reason : Because I am laid up here at Durban 
with the pain and trouble in my left leg. Ever since that 
confounded lion got hold of me I have been liable to it, 
and its being rather bad just now makes me limp more 
than ever. There must be some poison in a lion’s teeth, 
otherwise how is it that when your wounds are healed they 
break out again, generally, mark you, at the same time of 
year that you got your mauling ? It is a hard thing that 
when one has shot sixty-five lions, as I have in the course 
of my life, that the sixty-sixth should chew your leg like a 
quid of tobacco. It breaks the routine of the thing, and, 
putting other considerations aside, I am an orderly man 
and don’t like that. This is by the way. 

Third reason : Because I want my boy Harry, who is 
over there at the hospital in London studying to become a 
doctor, to have something to amuse him and keep him out 
of mischief for a week or so. Hospital work must some- 
times pall and get rather dull, for even of cutting-up dead 
bodies there must come satiety, and as this history won’t 
be dull, whatever else it may be, it may put a little life into 
things for a day or two while he is reading it. 

Fourth reason and last : Because I am going to tell the 
strangest story that I know of. It may seem a queer thing 
to say that, especially considering that there is no woman 
in it — except Foulata. Stop, though ! there is Gagaoola, 
if she was a woman and not a fiend. But she was a hun- 
dred at least, and therefore not marriageable, so I don’t 
count her. At any rate, I can safely say that there is not 
2^ petticoat in the whole history. Well, I had better come 
to the yoke. It’s a stiff place, and I feel as though I were 
bogged up to the axle. But sutjes, sutjes,” as the Boers 
say (I’m sure I don’t know how they spell it), softly does 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


3 


it. A strong team will come throngli at last, that is if 
they ain’t too poor. You will never do anything with poor 
oxen. Now, to begin. 

I, Allan Quatermain, of Durban, Natal, Gentleman, make 
oath and say — That’s how I began my deposition before 
the magistrate about poor Khiva’s and Ventvogel’s sad 
deaths; but somehow it doesn’t seem quite the right way 
to begin a book. And, besides, am I a gentleman ? What 
is a gentleman ? I don’t quite know, and yet I have had 
to do with niggers — no. I’ll scratch that word niggers ” 
out, for I don’t like it. I’ve known natives who are, and 
so you’ll say, Harry, my boy, before you’re done with this 
tale, and I have known mean whites with lots of money 
and fresh out from home, too, who Well, at any rate 

I was born a gentleman, though I’ve been nothing but a poor 
travelling trader and hunter all my life. Whether I have 
remained so I know not ; you must judge of that. Heaven 
knows I’ve tried. I’ve, killed many men in my time, but I 
have never slain wantonly or stained my hand in innocent 
blood, only in self-defence. The Almighty gave us our 
lives, and I suppose he meant us to defend them ; at least 
I have always acted on that, and I hope it won’t be brought 
up against me when my clock strikes. There, there ; it is 
a cruel and a wicked world, and, for a timid man, I have 
been mixed up in a deal of slaughter. I can’t tell the rights 
of it, but at any rate I have never stolen, though I once 
cheated a Kaffir out of a herd of cattle. But then, he had 
done me a dirty turn, and it has troubled me ever since 
into the bargain. 

Well, it’s eighteen months or so ago since I first met Sir 
Henry Curtis and Captain Good, and it was in this way. 
I had been up elephant hunting beyond Bamangwato, and 


'4 " KiKG Solomon’s mikes. 

had had bad luck. Everything went wrong that trip, and 
to top up with I got the fever badly. So soon as I was 
well enough I trekked down to the Diamond Fields, sold 
such ivory as I had, and also my wagon and oxen, dis- 
charged my hunters, and took the post-cart to the Cape. 
After spending a week in Cape Town, finding that they 
overcharged me at the hotel, and having seen everything 
there was to see, including the botanical gardens, which 
seem to me likely to confer a great benefit on the country, 
and the new Houses of Parliament, which I expect will do 
nothing of the sort, I determined to go on back to Natal 
by the Dunkeld, then lying in the docks waiting for the 
Edinburgh Castle due in from England. I took my berth 
and went aboard, and that afternoon the Natal passengers 
from the Edinburgh Castle transhipped, and we weighed 
anchor and put out to sea. 

Among the passengers who came on board there were i 
two who excited my curiosity. One, a man of about thirty, 
was one of the biggest-chested and longest-armed men I 
ever saw. He had yellow hair, a big yellow beard, clear- 
cut features, and large gray eyes set deep into his head. ’ 
I never saw a finer-looking man, and somehow he reminded ; 
me of an ancient Dane. Not that I know much of ancient 1 
Danes, though I remember a modern Dane who did me out ! 
of ten pounds ; but I remember once seeing a picture of 
some of those gentry, who, I take it, were a kind of white 
Zulus. They were drinking out of big horns, and their 
long hair hung down their backs, and as I looked at my 
friend standing there by the companion-ladder, I thought 
that if one only let his hair grow a bit, put one of those 
chain shirts on to those great shoulders of his, and gave 
him a big battle-axe and a horn mug, he might have sat as 


KING BOLOMON’s MINES. 


5 


a model for that picture. And, by the way, it is a curious 
thing, and just shows how the blood will show out, I found 
out afterwards that Sir Henry Curtis, for that was the big 
man’s name, was of Danish blood.* He also reminded me 
strongly of somebody else, but at the time I could not re- 
member who it was. 

The other man, who stood talking to Sir Henry, was 
short, stout, and dark, and of quite a different cut. T sus- 
pected at once that he was a naval officer. I don’t know 
why, but it is difficult to mistake a navy man. I have gone 
shooting trips with several of them in the course of my 
life, and they have always been just the best and bravest 
and nicest fellows I ever met, though given to the use of 
profane language. 

I asked, a page or two back, what is a gentleman ? I’ll 
answer it now : a royal naval officer is, in a general sort 
of a way, though, of course, there may be a black sheep 
among them here and there. I fancy it is just the wide 
lea and the breath of God’s winds that washes their hearts 
and blows the bitterness out of their minds and makes 
them what men ought to be. Well, to return, I was right 
again ; I found out that he was a naval officer, a lieutenant 
of thirty-one, who, after seventeen years’ service, had been 
turned out of her majesty’s employ with the barren honor 
of a commander’s rank, because it was impossible that he 
should be promoted. This is what people who serve the 
queen have to expect : to be shot out into the cold world 
to find a living just when they are beginning to really un- 


* Mr. Quatermain’s ideas about ancient Danes seem to be rather con- 
futed; we have always understood that they were dark-haired people. 
Probably he was thinking of Saxont.— J5*Vor. 


6 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


derstand their work, and to get to the prime of life. Well, 
I suppose they don’t mind it, but for my part I had rather 
earn my bread as a hunter. One’s half-pence are as scarce, 
perhaps, but you don’t get so many kicks. His name I 
found out — by referring to the passengers’ list — was Good 
— Captain John Good. He was broad, of medium height^ 
dark, stout, and rather a curious man to look at. He was 
so very neat and so very clean shaved, and he always wore 
an eye-glass in his right eye. It seemed to grow there, for 
it had no string, and he never took it out except to wipe 
it. At first I thought he used to sleep in it, but I after- 
wards found that this was a mistake. He put it in his 
trousers pocket when he went to bed, together with his 
false teeth, of which he had two beautiful sets that have 
often, my own being none of the best, caused me to break 
the tenth Commandment. But I am anticipating. 

Soon after we had got under way evening closed in, 
and brought with it very dirty weather. A keen breeze 
sprang up off land, and a kind of aggravated Scotch mist 
soon drove everybody from the deck. And as for that 
Dunkeld, she is a flat-bottomed punt, and, going up light 
as she was, she rolled very heavily. It almost seemed as 
though she would go right over, but she never did. It 
was quite impossible to walk about, so I stood near the 
engines, where it was warm, and amused myself with 
watching the pendulum, which was fixed opposite to me, 
swinging slowly backward and forward as the vessel rolled, 
mid marking the angle she touched at each lurch. 

“ rnat pendulum’s wrong; it is not properly weighted,” 
suddenly said a voice at my shoulder, somewhat testily. 
Looking round I saw the naval officer I had noticed when 
the passengers came aboard. 


KING Solomon's mines. 


1 

‘‘Indeed; now what makes you think so?” I asked. 

“ Think so. I don’t think at all. Why there ” — as she 
righted herself after a roll — “ if the ship had really rolled 
to the degree that thing pointed to then she would never 
have rolled again, that’s all. But it is just like these mer- 
chant skippers, they always are so confoundedly careless.” 

Just then the dinner-bell rang, and I was not sorry, for 
it is a dreadful thing to have to listen to an officer of the 
Royal Navy when he gets on to that subject. I only 
know one worse thing, and that is to hear a merchant 
skipper express his candid opinion of officers of the Royal 
Navy. 

Captain Good and I went down to dinner together, and 
there we found Sir Henry Curtis already seated. He and 
Captain Good sat together, and I sat opposite to them. 
The captain and I soon got into talk about shooting and 
what not, he asking me many questions, and I answering 
as well as I could. Presently he got on to elephants. 

“ Ah, sir,” called out somebody who was sitting near 
me, “you’ve got to the right man for that; Hunter Qua- 
termain should be able to tell you about elephants if any- 
body can.” 

Sir Henry, who had been sitting quite quiet listening to 
our talk, started visibly. 

“Excuse me, sir,” he said, leaning forward across the 
table, and speaking in a low, deep voice, a very suitable 
voice, it seemed to me, to come out of those great lungs. 
“ Excuse me, sir, but is your name Allan Quatermain?” 

I said it was. 

The big man made no further remark, but I heard him 
mutter “ fortunate ” into his beard. 

Presently dinner came to an end, and as we were leav- 


i 


Kiy« lOLOMOy’s 


ing thi »aloon Sir Henry came up and asked m# if I 
would come into his cabin and smoke a pipe. I accepted, 
and he led the way to the JDunkeld deck cabin, and a very 
good cabin it was. It had been two cabins, but when Sir 
Garnet, or one of those big swells, went down the coast 
in the Dunkeld they had knocked away the partition and 
never put it up again. There was a sofa in the cabin, and 
a little table in front of it. Sir Henry sent the steward 
for a bottle of whiskey, and the three of us sat down and 
lit our pipes. 

“Mr. Quatermain,” said Sir Henry Curtis, when the 
steward had brought the whiskey and lit the lamp, “ the 
year before last, about this time, you were, I believe, at 
a place called Bamangwato, to the north of the Trans- 
vaal.” 

“ I was,” I answered, rather surprised that this gentle- 
man should be so well acquainted with my movements, 
vrhich were not, so far as I was aware, considered of gen- 
eral interest. 

“You were trading there, were you not?” put in Cap- 
tain Good, in his quick way. 

“ I was. I took up a wagon-load of goods and made a 
camp outside the settlement, and stopped till I had sold 
them.” 

Sir Henry was sitting opposite to me in a Madeira chair, 
his arms leaning on the table. He now looked up, fixing 
his large gray eyes full upon my face. There was a curi- 
ous anxiety in them, I thought. 

“ Did you happen to meet a man called Neville there ?” 

“ Oh, yes ; he out spanned alongside of me for a fort- 
night, to rest his oxen before going on to the interior, l 
had a letter from a lawyer, a few months back, asking me 


KIXG SOtOMOx’* MIXES. 


9 


if I knew what had become of him, which I answered to 
the best of my ability at the time.” 

‘‘Yes,^’ said Sir Henry, ‘‘your letter was forwarded to 
me. You said in it that the gentleman called Neville left 
Bamangwato in the beginning of May, in a wagon, with 
a driver, a voorlooper, and a Kaffir hunter called Jim, an- 
nouncing his intention of trekking, if possible, as far as 
Inyati, the extreme trading-post in the Matabele country, 
where he would sell his wagon and proceed on foot. You 
also said that he did sell his wagon, for, six months after- 
wards, you saw the wagon in the possession of a Portu- 
guese trader, who told you that he had bought it at In- 
yati from a white man whose name he had forgotten, and 
that the white man, with a native servant, had started off 
for the interior on a shooting trip, he believed.” 

“Yes.” 

Then came a pause. 

“ Mr. Quatermain,” said Sir Henry, suddenly, “ I sup- 
pose you know or can guess nothing more of the reasons 
of my — of Mr. Neville’s journey to the northward, or as 
to what point that journey was directed ?” 

“I heard something,” I answered, and stopped. Th# 
subject was one which I did not dare to discuss. 

Sir Henry and Captain Good looked at each other, and 
Captain Good nodded. 

“ Mr. Quatermain,” said the former, “ I am going to tell 
you a story, and ask your advice, and perhaps your assist- 
ance. The agent who forwarded me your letter told me 
that I might implicitly rely upon it, as you were,” he said, 
“ well known and universally respected in Natal, and espe- 
cially noted for your discretion.”' 

I bowed, and drank some whiskey-and-water to hide my 


10 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


confusion, for I am a modest man ; and Sir Henry went 
on. 

“ Mr. Neville was my brother.” 

“Oh,” I said, starting; for now I knew who Sir Henry 
had reminded me of when I first saw him. His brother 
was a much smaller man and had a dark beard, but, now I 
thought of it, he possessed eyes of the same shade of gray 
and with the same keen look in them, and the features, 
too, were not unlike. 

“ He was,” went on Sir Henry, “ my only and younger 
brother, and till live years ago I do not suppose we were 
ever a month away from each other. But just about five 
years ago a misfortune befell us, as sometimes does hap- 
pen in families. We had quarrelled bitterly, and I be- 
haved very unjustly to my brother in my anger.” Here 
Captain Good nodded his head vigorously to himself. 
The ship gave a big roll just then, so that the looking- 
glass, which was fixed opposite us to starboard, was for a 
moment nearly over our heads, and as I was sitting with 
my hands in my pockets and staring upward, I could see 
him nodding like anything. 

“ As I dare say you know,” went on Sir Henry, “ if a > 
man dies intestate, and has no property but land — real 
property it is called in England — it all descends to his eld- 
est son. It so happened that just at the time when we 
quarrelled our father died intestate. He had put off 
making his will until it was too late. The result was that 
my brother, who had not been brought up to any profes- 
sion, was left without a penny. Of course it would have 
been my duty to provide for him, but at the time the 
quarrel between us was so bitter that I did not — to my 
shame I say it (and he sighed deeply) — offer to do any- 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


11 


thing. It was not that I grudged him anything, but I 
waited for him to make advances, and he made none. I 
am sorry to trouble you with all this, Mr. Quatermain, but 
I must, to make things clear; eh, Good?” 

“ Quite so, quite so,” said the captain. “ Mr. Quater- 
main will, I am sure, keep this history to himself.” 

“ Of course,” said I, for I rather pride myself on my 
discretion. 

“Well,” went on Sir Henry, “my brother had a few 
hundred pounds to his account at the time, and without 
saying anything to me he drew out this paltry sum, and, 
having adopted the name of Neville, started off for South 
Africa in the wild hope of making a fortune. This I 
heard afterwards. Some three years passed, and I heard 
nothing of my brother, though I wrote several times. 
Doubtless the letters never reached him. But as time 
went on I grew more and more troubled about him. I 
found out, Mr. Quatermain, that blood is thicker than 
water.” 

“ That’s true,” said I, thinking of my boy Harry. 

“ I found out, Mr. Quatermain, that I would have given 
half my fortune to know that my brother George, the 
only relation I have, was safe and well, and that I should 
see him again.” 

“But you never did, Curtis,” jerked out Captain Good, 
glancing at the big man’s face. 

“ Well, Mr. Quatermain, as time went on I became more 
and more anxious to find out if my brother was alive or 
dead, and, if alive, to get him home again. I set inquiries 
on foot, and your letter was one of the results. So far as 
it went it was satisfactory, for it showed that till lately 
George was alive ; but it did not go far enough. So, to 


13 


KING Solomon’s minks. 


out a long story short, I made up my mind to come out 
and look for him myself, and Captain Good was so kind 
as to come with me.” 

“ Yes,” said the captain ; “ nothing else to do, you see. 
Turned out by my lords of the admiralty to starve ' on 
half-pay. And now, perhaps, sir, you will tell us what 
you know or have heard of the gentleman called Neville.” 


CHAPTER n. 

THE LEGEND OP SOLOMOn’s MINES. 

** What was it that you heard about my brother’s jour* 
ney at Bamangwato ?” said Sir Henry, as I paused to fill 
my pipe before answering Captain Good. 

“ I heard this,” I answered, “ and I have never men. 
tioned it to a soul till to-day. I heard that he was start* 
ing for Solomon’s Mines.” 

‘‘Solomon’s Mines!” ejaculated both my hearers at once, 
“ Where are they?” 

“ I don’t know,” I said ; “ I know where they are said 
to be. I once saw the peaks of the mountains that border 
them, but there was a hundred and thirty miles of desert 
between me and them, and I am not aware that any white 
man ever got across it, save one. But perhaps the best 
thing I can do is to tell you the legend of Solomon’s Mines 
as I know it, you passing your word not to reveal any- 
thing I tell you without my permission. Do you agree to 
that? I have my reasons for asking it.” 

Sir Henry nodded, and Captain Good replied, “ Certain- 
ly, certainly.” 

“Well,” I began, “as you may guess, in a general way 
elephant-hunters are a rough set of men, and don’t trouble 
themselves with much beyond the facts of life and the 
ways of Kaffirs. But here and there you meet a man who 
takes the trouble to collect traditions from the natives, and 
tries to make out a little piece of the history of this dark 


14 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


land. It was such a man as this who first told me the 
legend of Solomon’s Mines, now a matter of nearly thirty 
years ago. It was when I was on my first elephant-hunt 
in the Matabele country. His name was Evans, and he 
was killed next year, poor fellow, by a wounded buffalo, 
and lies buried near the Zambesi Falls. I was telling 
Evans one night, I remember, of some wonderful workings 
I had found while hunting koodoo and eland in what is 
now the Lydenburg district of the Transvaal. I see they 
have come across these workings again lately in prospect- 
ing for gold, but I knew of them years ago. There is a 
great wide wagon-road cut out of the solid rock, and lead- 
ing to the mouth of the working or gallery. Inside the 
mouth of this gallery are stacks of gold quartz piled up 
ready for crushing, which shows that the workers, who- 
ever they were, must have left in a hurry, and about 
twenty paces in the gallery is built across, and a beautiful 
bit of masonry it is. 

“ ‘ Ay,’ said Evans, ‘ but I will tell you a queerer thing 
than that ;’ and he went on to tell me how he had found 
in the far interior a ruined city, which he believed to be 
the Ophir of the Bible — and, by the way, other more 
learned men have said the same long since poor Evans’s 
time. I was, I remember, listening open-eared to all these 
wonders, for I was young at the time, and this story of an 
ancient civilization, and of the treasure which those old 
Jewish or Phoenician adventurers used to extract from a 
country long since lapsed into the darkest barbarism, took 
a great hold upon my imagination, when suddenly he said 
to me, ‘ Lad, did you ever hear of the Suliman Mountains 
up to the northwest of the Mashukulumbwe country?’ 
I told him I never had. ‘ Ah, well,’ he said, ‘ that was 


KING Solomon’s mines. 15 

where Solomon really had his mines — his diamond mines, 

I mean.’ 

“ ‘ How do you know that ?’ I asked. 

“ ‘ Know it ? why, what is “ Suliman ” but a corruption 
of Solomon?* and, besides, an old Isanusi (witch doctor) 
up in the Manica country told me all about it. She said 
that the people who lived across those mountains were a 
branch of the Zulus, speaking a dialect of Zulu, but finer 
and bigger men even ; that there lived among them great 
wizards, who had learned their art from white men when 
“ all the world was dark,” and who had the secret of a 
wonderful mine of ‘‘ bright stones.” ’ 

“ Well, I laughed at this story at the time, though it in- 
terested me, for the diamond fields were not discovered 
then, and poor Evans went off and got killed, and for 
twenty years I never thought any more of the matter. 
But just twenty years afterwards — and that is a long 
time, gentlemen; an elephant-hunter does not often live 
for twenty years at his business — I heard something more 
definite about Suliman’s Mountains and the country which 
lies beyond them. I was up beyond the Manica country at 
a place called Sitanda’s Kraal, and a miserable place it was, 
for one could get nothing to eat there, and there was but 
little game about. I had an attack of fever, and was in a 
bad way generally, when one day a Portugee arrived with 
a single companion — a half-breed. Now I know your 
Delagoa Portugee well. There is no greater devil un- 
hung, in a general way, battening as he does upon human 
agony and flesh in the shape of slaves. But this was quite 
a different type of man to the low fellows I had been ac- 


♦ Suliman is the Arabic form of Solomon. — Editor, 


16 


KINa iOLOMON’s MINES. 


customed to meet; he reminded me more of the polite 
dons I have read about. He was tall and thin, with large 
dark eyes and curling gray mustache. We talked to- 
gether a little, for he could speak broken English, and I 
understood a little Portugee, and he told me that his 
name was Jose Silvestre, and that he had a place near 
Delagoa Bay ; and when he went on next day, with his 
half-breed companion, he said, ‘ Good-bye,’ taking off his 
hat quite in the old style. ‘Good-bye, senor,’ he said; 
‘if ever we meet again I shall be the richest man in the 
world, and I will remember you.’ I laughed a little — I 
was too weak to laugh much — and watched him strike out 
for the great desert to the west, wondering if he was mad, 
or what he thought he was going to find there. 

“A week passed, and I got the better of my fever. 
One evening I was sitting on the ground in front of the 
little tent I had with me, chewing the last leg of a miser- 
able fowl I had bought from a native for a bit of cloth 
worth twenty fowls, and staring at the hot, red sun sink- 
ing down into the desert, when suddenly I saw a figure, 
apparently that of a European, for it wore a coat, on the 
slope of the rising ground opposite to me, about three 
hundred yards away. The figure crept along on its hands 
and knees, then it got up and staggered along a few yards 
on its legs, only to fall and crawl along again. Seeing 
that it must be somebody in distress, I sent one of my 
hunters to help him, and presently he arrived, and who do 
you suppose it turned out to be ?” 

“ Jos4 Silvestre, of course,” said Captain Good. 

“Yes, Jos4 Silvestre, or rather his skeleton and a littl» 
•kin. His face was bright yellow with bilious fever, and 
bis large, dark eyes stood nearly out of his head, for all 


KixG Solomon’s mines. 


17 


his flesh had gone. There was nothing but yellow, paroh- 
raent-like skin, white hair, and the gaunt bones sticking 
up beneath. 

“‘Water ! for the sake of Christ, water !’ he moaned. 
I saw that his Hps were cracked, and his tongue, which 
protruded between them, was swollen and blackish. 

“ I gave him water with a little milk in it, and he drank 
it in great gulps, two quarts or more, without stopping. 
I would not let him have any more. Then the fever took 
him again, and he fell down and began to rave about Suli- 
man’s Mountains, and the diamonds, and the desert. I 
took him into the tent and did what I could for him, 
which was little enough ; but I saw how it must end. 
About eleven o’clock he got quieter, and I lay down for a 
little rest and went to sleep. At dawn I woke again, and 
saw him in the half light sitting up, a strange, gaunt 
form, and gazing out towards the desert. Presently the 
first ray of the sun shot right across the wide plain before 
us till it reached the far-away crest of one of the tallest of 
the Suliman Mountains, more than a hundred miles away. 

“ ‘ There it is I’ cried the dying man in Portuguese, 
stretching out his long, thin arm, ‘ but I shall never reach 
it, never. No one will ever reach it !’ 

“ Suddenly he paused, and seemed to take a resolution. 
‘ Friend,’ he said, turning towards me, ‘ are you there 1 
My eyes grow dark.’ 

“ ‘ Yes,’ I said; ‘yes, lie down now, and rest.* 

“‘Ay,’ he answered, ‘I shall rest soon; I have, time to 
rest — all eternity. Listen, I am dying ! You have been 
good to me. I will give you the paper. Perhaps you will 
get there if you can live through the desert, which has 
killed my poor servant and me.* 

* 


18 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


Then he groped in his shirt and brought out what I 
thought was a Boer tobacco-pouch of the skin of the Swart- 
vet-pens (sable antelope). It was fastened with a little 
strip of hide, what we call a rimpi, and this he tried to 
untie, but could not. He handed it to me. ‘ Untie it,’ he 
said. I did so, and extracted a bit of torn yellow linen, 
on which something was written in rusty letters. Inside 
was a paper. 

‘‘ Then he went on feebly, for he was growing weak : 
* The paper has it all, that is on the rag. It took me years 
to read. Listen : my ancestor, a political refugee from 
Lisbon and one of the first Portuguese who landed on 
these shores, wrote that when he was dying on those moun- 
tains which no white foot ever pressed before or since. 
His name was Jose da Silvestra, and he lived three hun- 
dred years ago. His slave, who waited for him on this 
side the mountains, found him dead, and brought the 
writing home to Delagoa. It has been in the family ever 
since, but none have cared to read it till at last I did. 
And I have lost my life over it, but another may succeed, 
and become the richest man in the world — the richest man 
in the world. Only give it to no one; go yourself !’ Then 
he began to wander again, and in an hour it was all over. 

‘‘ God rest him ! he died very quietly, and I buried him 
deep, with big boulders on his breast ; so I dp not think 
that the jackals can have dug him up. And then I came 
away.” 

“ Ay, but the document,” said Sir Henry, in a tone of 
deep interest. 

“ Yes, the document; what was in it?” added the captain. 

•‘Well, gentlemen, if you like I will tell you. I have 
never showed it to anybody yet except my dear wife, wh# 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


19 


is dead, and she thought it was all nonsense, and a drunken 
old Portuguese trader who translated it for me, and had 
forgotten all about it next morning. The original rag is 
at my home in Durban, together with poor Don Jose’s 
translation, but I have the English rendering in my pocket- 
book, and a fac-simile of the map, if it can be called a map. 
Here it is.” 



Pan bad 


90 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 

“ I, Jos4 da Silvestra, who am now dying of hunger in the little cave 
where no snow is on the north side of the nipple of the southernmost of 
the two mountains I have named Sheba’s Breasts, write this in the year 
1690 with a cleft bone upon a remnant of my raiment, my blood being the 
ink. If my slave should find it when he comes, and should bring it to 
Delagoa, let my friend (name illegible) bring the matter to the knowledge 
of the king, that he may send an army which, if they live through the 
desert and the mountains, and can overcome the brave Kukuanes and 
their devilish arts, to which end many priests should be brought, will 
make him the richest king since Solomon. With my own eyes have I 
seen the countless diamonds stored in Solomon’s treasure-chamber behind 
the white Death ; but through the treachery of Gagool the witch-finder I 
might bring nought away, scarcely my life, het him who comes follow 
the map, and climb the snow of Sheba’s left breast till he comes to the 
nipple, on the north side of which is the great road Solomon made, from 
whence three days’ journey to the King’s Place. Let him kill Gagool. 
Pray for my soul. Farewell. Jostf da Silvestra.” * 

When I had finished reading the above and shown the 
copy of the map, drawn by the dying hand of the old don 

* “ Eu Jos4 da Silvestra que estou morrendo de fome n4 pequena cova 
onde nao ha neve ao lado norte do bico mais ao sul das duas montanhas 
que chamei seio de Sheba; escrevo isto no anno 1690; escrevo isto com 
um peda 90 d’ osso n’ um farrapo de minha roupa e com sangue meu por 
tinta ; se o meu escravo ddr com isto quando venha ao levar para Lourenzo 

Marquez, que o meu amigo ( leve a cousa ao conheeimento d’ El 

Rei, para que possa mandar um eiercito que, se desfiler pdo deserto • 
pelas montanhas e mesmo sobrepujar os bravos Kukuanes e suas artes 
diabolicas, pelo que se deviam trazer muitos padres Fara o Rei mais rico 
depois de Saloraao. Com meus proprios olhos vd os di amantes sem conto ‘ 
guardadoB nas camaras do thesouro de Salomao a traz da morte branca, 
mas pela trai 9 ao de Gagoal a feiticeira achadora, nada poderia levar, e 
apenas a minha vida. Quern vier siga o mappa e trepe pela neve de Sheba 
peito k esquerda atd chegar ao bico, do lado norte do qual estk a granda 
estrada do SaiomSo por elle feita, donde ha tres dias de journada at6 ao 
Palacio do Rei. Mate Gagoal. Reze por minha alma. Adeos. 

Josri DA SzLyEvrs^.** 


KING Solomon’s mines. 21 

with his blood for ink, there followed a silence of aston- 
ishment. 

“ Well,” said Captain Good, I have been round the 
world twice, and put in at most ports, but may I be hung 
if I ever heard a yarn like that out of a story-book, or in 
it either, for the matter of that.” 

‘‘It’s a queer story, Mr. Quatermain,” said Sir Henry. 
“ I suppose you are not hoaxing us ? It is, I know, some- 
times thought allowable to take a greenhorn in.” 

“ If you think that. Sir Henry,” I said, much put out, 
and pocketing my paper, for I do not like to be thought 
one of those silly fellows who consider it witty to tell lies, 
and who are forever boasting to new-comers of extraor- 
dinary hunting adventures which never happened, “ why 
there is an end of the matter,” and I rose to go. 

Sir Henry laid his large hand upon my shoulder. “ Sit 
down, Mr. Quatermain,” he said, “I beg your pardon; I 
see very well you do not wdsh to deceive us, but the story 
sounded so extraordinary that I could hardly believe it.” 

“You shall see the original map and writing when we 
reach Durban,” I said, somewhat mollified; for really, when 
I came to consider the matter, it was scarcely wonderful 
that he should doubt my good faith. “ But I have not 
told you about your brother. I knew the man Jim who 
was with him. He was a Bechuana by birth, a good hunt- 
er, and, for a native, a very clever man. The morning Mr. 
Neville was starting, I saw Jim standing by my wagon 
and cutting up tobacco on the disselboom. 

“‘Jim,’ said I, ‘where are you off to this trip? Is it 
elephants ?’ 

“ ‘ No, Bass,’ he answered, ‘ we are after something worth 
more than ivory.’ 


22 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


“‘And what might that be?’ I said; for I was curious. 

‘ Is it gold ?’ 

“‘No, Baas, something worth more than gold,’ and he 
grinned. 

“ I did not ask any more questions, for I did not like to 
lower my dignity by seeming curious, but I was puzzled. 
Presently Jim finished cutting his tobacco. 

“ ‘ Baas,’ said he. 

“I took no notice. 

“ ‘Baas,’ said he again. 

“ ‘ Eh, boy, what is it ?’ said I. 

“ ‘ Baas, we are going after diamonds.’ 

“‘Diamonds ! why, then, you are going in the wrong 
direction; you should head for the Fields.’ 

“ ‘ Baas, have you ever heard of Suliman’s Berg ?’ (Sol- 
omon’s Mountains.) 

“‘Ay !’ 

“‘Have you ever heard of the diamonds there ?’ 

‘“I have heard a foolish story, Jim.’ 

“ ‘ It is no story. Baas. I once knew a woman who came 
from there, and got to Natal with her child. She told me; 
she is dead now.’ 

“ ‘Your master will feed the assvogels (vultures), Jim, 
if he tries to reach Suliman’s country, and so will you, if 
they can get any pickings off your worthless old carcass,’ 
said I. 

“He grinned. ‘Mayhap, Baas. Man must die; I’d 
rather like to try a new country myself; the elephants are 
getting worked out about here.’ 

“ ‘ Ah ! my boy,’ I said, ‘ you wait till the “ pale old 
man ” (death) gets a grip of your yellow throat, and then 
we’ll hear what sort of a tune you sing,’ 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


23 


“ Half an hour after that I saw Neville’s wagon move 
off. Presently Jim came running back. ‘ Good-bye, Baas,’ 
he said. ‘ I didn’t like to start without bidding you good- 
bye, for I dare say you are right, and we shall never come 
back again.’ 

“‘Is your master really going to Suliman’s Berg, Jim, 
or are you lying ?’ 

“ ‘ No,’ says he; ‘he is going. He told me he was bound 
to make his fortune somehow, or try to; so he might as 
well try the diamonds.’ 

“‘Oh !’ said I; ‘wait a bit, Jim; will you take a note 
to your master, Jim, and promise not to give it to him 
until you reach Inyati?’ (which was some hundred miles off). 

“ ‘ Yes,’ said he. 

“ So I took a scrap of ^aper and wrote on it, ‘ Let him 
who comes . . . climb the snow of Sheba’s left breast, till 
he comes to the nipple, on the north side of which is Solo- 
mon’s great road.’ 

“Now, Jim,’ I said, ‘vhen you give this to your mas- 
ter, tell him he had better follow the advice implicitly. 
You are not to give it to him now, because I don’t want 
him back asking me questions which I won’t answer. Now 
be off, you idle fellow, the wagon is nearly out of sight.” 

“ Jim took the note and went, and that is all I know 
about your brother. Sir Henry; but I am much afraid—” 

“ Mr. Quatermain,” said Sir Henry, “ I am going to look 
for my brother ; I am going to trace him to Suliman’s 
Mountains, and over them, if necessary, until I find him, 
or until I know that he is dead. Will you come with 
me?” 

I am, as I think I have said, a cautious man, indeed a 
timid one, and I shrank from such an idea. It seemed to 


24 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


m« that to start on such a journey would be to go to cer- 
tain death, and, putting other things aside, as I had a son 
to support, I could not afford to die just then. 

“ No, thank you. Sir Henry, I think I had rather not,” 

I answered. am too old for wild-goose chases of that 
sort, and we should only end up like my poor friend Sil- 
yestre. I have a son dependent on me, so cannot afford 
to risk my life.” 

Both Sir Henry and Captain Good looked very disap- 
pointed. 

‘‘Mr. Quatermain,” said the former, “ I am well off, and 
I am bent upon this business. You may put the remu- 
neration for your services at whatever figure you like, in 
reason, and it shall be paid over to you before we start. 
Moreover, I will, before we start, arrange that in the event 
of anything happening to us or to you, your son shall 
be suitably provided for. You will see from this how 
necessary I think your presence. Also, if by any chance 
we should reach this place, and find diamonds, they shall 
belong to you and Good equally. I do not want them. 
But of course the chance is as good as nothing, though the 
same thing would apply to any ivory we might get. You 
may pretty well make your own terms with me, Mr. Qua- 
termain; of course I shall pay all expenses.” 

“ Sir Henry,” said I, “ this is the most liberal offer I 
ever had, and one not to be sneezed at by a poor hunter || 
and trader. But the job is the biggest I ever came across, 
and I must take time to think it over. I will give you my 
answer before we get to Durban.” 

“ Very good,” answered Sir Henry, and then I said good- 
night and turned in, and dreamed about poor, long-dead 
Silvestre and the diamonds. 


CHAPTER III. 

UMBOPA ENTERS OUR SERVICE. 

It takes from four to five days, according to the vessel 
and the state of the weather, to run up from the Cape to 
Durban. Sometimes, if the landing is bad at East Lon- 
don, where they have not yet got that wonderful harbor 
they talk so much of and sink, such a mint of money in, 
one is delayed for twenty-four hours before the cargo 
boats can get out to take the goods off. But on this occa- 
sion we had not to wait at all, for there were no breakers 
on the bar to speak of, and the tugs came out at once with 
their long strings of ugly, flat-bottomed boats, into which 
the goods were bundled with a crash. It did not matter 
what they were, over they went, slap-bang ! whether they 
were china or woollen goods they met with the same treat- 
ment. I saw one case containing four dozen of cham- 
pagne smashed all to bits, and there was the champagne 
fizzing and boiling about in the bottom of the dirty cargo- 
boat. It was a wicked waste, and so evidently the Kaflirs 
in the boat thought, for they found a couple of unbroken 
bottles, and knocking the tops off drank the contents. But 
they had not allowed for the expansion caused by the fizz 
in the wine, and feeling themselves swelling, rolled about 
in the bottom of the boat, calling out that the good liquor 
was “ tagati ” (bewitched). I spoke to them from the ves- 
sel, and told them that it was the white man’s strongest 
medicine, and that they were as good as dead men. They 


26 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


went on to the shore in a very great fright, and I do not 
think that they will touch champagne again. 

Well, all the time we were running up to Natal I was 
thinking over Sir Henry Curtis’s offer. We did not speak 
any more on the subject for a day or two, though I told 
them many hunting yarns, all true ones. There is no need 
to tell lies about hunting, for so many curious things hap- 
pen within the knowledge of a man whose business it is 
to hunt; but this is by the way. 

At last, one beautiful evening in J anuary, which is our 
hottest month, we steamed along the coast of Natal, ex- 
pecting to make Durban Point by sunset. It is a lovely 
coast all along from East London, with its red sandhills 
and wide sweeps of vivid green, dotted here and there 
with Kaffir kraals, and bordered by a ribbon of white surf 
which spouts up in pillars of foam where it hits the rocks. 
But just before you get to Durban there is a peculiar rich- 
ness about it. There are the deep kloofs cut in the hills 
by the rushing rains of centuries, down which the rivers 
sparkle; there is the deepest green of the bush, growing 
as God planted it, and the other greens of the mealie-gar- 
dens and the sugar-patches, while here and there a white 
house, smiling out at the placid sea, puts a finish and gives 
an air of homeliness to the scene. For to my mind, how- 
ever beautiful a view may be, it requires the presence of 
man to make it complete, but perhaps that is because I 
have lived so much in the wilderness, and therefore know 
the value of civilization, though, to be sure, it drives away 
the game. The Garden of Eden, no doubt, was fair before 
man was, but I always think it must have been fairer when 
Eve was walking about it. But we had miscalculated a 
little, and the sun was well down before we dropped am 


KING SOLOMON'S MINES. 


27 


chor off the Point, and heard the gun which told the good 
folk that the English mail was in. It was too late to 
think of getting over the bar that night, so we went down 
comfortably to dinner, after seeing the mail carried off in 
the lifeboat. 

When we came up again the moon was up, and shining 
so brightly over sea and shore that she almost paled the 
quick, large flashes from the lighthouse. From the shore 
floated sweet spicy odors that always remind me of hymns 
and missionaries, and in the windows of the houses on the 
Berea sparkle a hundred lights. From a large brig lying 
near came the music of the sailors as they worked at get- 
ting the anchor up to be ready for the wind. Altogether 
it was a perfect night, such a night as you only get in 
southern Africa, and it threw a garment of peace over 
everybody as the moon threw a garment of silver over 
everything. Even the great bulldog, belonging to a sport- 
ing passenger, seemed to -yield to the gentle influences, 
and, giving up yearning to come to close quarters with the 
baboon in a cage on the fo’k’sle, snored happily in the door 
of the cabin, dreaming, no doubt, that he had finished him, 
and happy in his dream. 

We all — that is. Sir Henry Curtis, Captain Good, and 
- myself — went and sat by the wheel, and were quiet for a 
while. 

“Well, Mr. Quatermain,” said Sir Henry, presently, 
“ have you been thinking about my proposals 

“ Ay,” echoed Captain Good, “ what do you think of 
' them, Mr. Quatermain? I hope you are going to give 
! us the pleasure of your company as far as Solomon’s Mines, 
or wherever the gentleman you knew as Neville may have 
j got to.” 


2S 


KING SOLOMON S MINKS. 


I rose knocked out my pipe before I answered. I 
had no t made up my mind, and wanted the additional mo- 
iiient to complete it. Before the burning tobacco had 
^^uilen into the sea it was completed ; just that little extra 
second did the trick. It is often the way when you have 
been bothering a long time over a thing. 

‘‘ Yes, gentlemen,” I said, sitting down again, I will go, 
and by your leave I will tell you why and on what terms. 
First, for the terms which I ask. 

“ 1. You are to pay all expenses, and any ivory or other 
valuables we may get is to be divided between Captain 
Good and myself. 

‘‘ 2. That you pay me £500 for my service on the trip 
before we start, I undertaking to serve you faithfully till 
you choose to abandon the enterprise, or till we succeed, 
or disaster overtakes us. 

‘^ 3. That before we start you execute a deed agreeing 
in the event of my death or disablement, to pay my boy 
Harry, who is studying medicine over there in London at 
Guy’s Hospital, a sum of £200 a year for five years, by 
which time he ought to be able to earn a living for him- 
self. That is all, I think, and I dare say you will say quite 
enough, too.” 

“ No,” answered Sir Henry, ‘‘ I accept them gladly. I 
am bent upon this project, and would pay more than that 
for your help, especially considering the peculiar knowl- 
edge you possess.” 

“Very well. And now that I have made my terms I 
will tell you my reasons for making up my mind to go. 
First of all, gentlemen, I have been observing you both for 
the last few days, and if you will not think me imperti- 
nent I will say that I like you, and think that we shall 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


29 


come up well to the yoke together. That is something, 
let me tell you, when one has a long journey like this be- 
fore one. 

“ And now as to the journey itself, I tell you flatly, Sir 
Henry and Captain Good, that I do not think it probable 
that we can come out of it alive, that is, if we attempt to 
cross the Suliman Mountains. What was the fate of the 
old Don da Silvestra three hundred years ago ? What 
was the fate of his descendant twenty years ago ? What 
has been your brother’s fate ? I tell you frankly, gentle- 
men, that as their fate was so I believe ours will be.” 

I paused to watch the effect of my words. Captain 
Good looked a little uncomfortable ; but Sir Henry’s face 
did not change. We must take our chance,” he said. 

You may perhaps wonder,” I went on, “ why, if I think 
this, I, who am, as I told you, a timid man, should under- 
take such a journey. It is for two reasons. First, I am a 
fatalist, and believe that my time is appointed to come 
quite independently of my own movements, and that if I 
am to go to Suliman Mountains to be killed, I shall go 
there and shall be killed there. God Almighty, no doubt, 
knows his mind about me, so I need not trouble on that 
point. Secondly, I am a poor man. For nearly forty 
years I have hunted and traded, but I have never made 
more than a living. Well, gentlemen, I don’t know if you 
are aware that the average life of an elephant-hunter from 
the time he takes to the trade is from four to five years. 
So you see I have lived through about seven generations 
of my class, and I should think that my time cannot be 
far off, any way. Now, if anything were to happen to me 
in the ordinary course of business, by the time my debts 
were paid there would be nothing left to support my sol 


30 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


Harry while he was getting in the way of earning a living, 
whereas now he would be provided for for five years. 
There is the whole affair in a nutshell.” 

Mr. Quaterraain,” said Sir Henry, who had been giv- 
ing me the most serious attention, “your motives for un- 
dertaking an enterprise which you believe can only end in 
disaster reflect a great deal of credit on you. Whether 
or not you are right, time and the event, of course, alone 
can show. But whether you are right or wrong, I may as 
well tell you at once that I am going through with it to 
the end, sweet or bitter. If we are going to be knocked 
on the head, all that I have to say is that I hope we shall 
get a little shooting first — eh, Good ?” 

“Yes, yes,” put in the captain. “ We have all three of 
us been accustomed to face danger, and hold our lives in 
our hands in various ways, so it is no good turning back 
now.” 

“And now I vote we go down to the saloon and take 
an observation, just for luck, you know.” And v e did — 
through the bottom of a tumbler. 

Next day we went ashore, and I put Sir Henry and 
Captain Good up at the little shanty I have on the Berea, 
and which I call my home. There are only three rooms 
and a kitchen in it, and it is built of green brick with a 
galvanized iron roof, but there is a good garden, with the 
best loquot-trees in it that I know, and some nice young 
mangoes, of which I hope great things. The curator of 
the botanical gardens gave them to me. It is looked after 
by an old hunter of mine, named Jack, whose thigh was 
80 badly broken by a buffalo cow in Sikukunis country 
that he will never hunt again. But he can potter about 
and garden, being a Griqua by birth. You can never get 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


31 


your Zulu to take much interest in gardening. It is a 
peaceful art, and peaceful arts are not in his line. 

Sir Henry and Good slept in a tent pitched in my lit, tie 
grove of orange-trees at the end of the garden (for there 
was no room for them in the house), and what with the 
smell of the bloom and the sight of the green and golden 
fruit — for in Durban you will see all three on the tree to- 
gether — I dare say it is a pleasant place enough (for we 
have few mosquitoes here unless there happens to come an 
unusually heavy rain). 

Well, to get on — for unless I do you will be tired of my 
story before ever we fetch up at Suliman’s Mountains — 
having once made up my mind to go, I set about making 
the necessary preparations. First I got the deed from Sir 
Henry, providing for my boy in case of accidents. There 
was some little difficulty about getting this legally ex- 
ecuted, as Sir Henry was a stranger here, and the property 
to be charged was over the water; but it was ultimately 
got over with the help of a lawyer, who charged £20 for 
the job — a price that I thought outrageous. Then I got 
my check for £500. Having paid this tribute to my 
bump of caution, I bought a wagon and a span of oxen on 
Sir Henry’s behalf, and beauties they were. It was a 
twenty-two-foot wagon with iron axles, very strong, very 
light, and built throughout of stink -wood. It was not 
quite a new one, having been to the Diamond Fields and 
back, but in my opinion it was all the better for that, for 
one could see that the wood was well-seasoned. If any- 
thing is going to give in a wagon, or if there is green wood 
in it, it will show out on the first trip. It was what we 
call a “ half-tented ” wagon — that is to say, it was only 
covered in over the after twelve feet, leaving all the front 


"32 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


part free for the necessaries we had to carry with us. In 
this after part was a hide ‘‘ cartle,” or bed, on which two 
people could sleep, also racks for rifles, and many other 
little conveniences. I gave £125 for it, and think it was 
cheap at the price. Then I bought a beautiful team of 
twenty salted Zulu oxen, which I had had my eye on for 
a year or two. Sixteen oxen are the usual number for a 
team, but I had four extra to allow for casualties. These 
Zulu oxen are small and light, not more than half the size 
of the Africander oxen, which are generally used for trans- 
port purposes; but they will live where the Africander 
will starve, and with a light load will make five miles a 
day better going, being quicker and not so liable to get 
footsore. What is more, this lot were thoroughly “ salted ” 
— that is, they had worked all over South Africa, and so had 
become proof (comparatively speaking) against red water, 
which so frequently destroys whole teams of dxen when 
they get on to strange “veldt” (grass country). As for 
“ lung sick,” which is a dreadful form of pneumonia, very 
prevalent in this country, they had all been inoculated 
against it. This is done by cutting a slit in the tail of an 
ox, and binding in a piece of the diseased lung of an animal 
which has died of the sickness. The result is that the ox 
sickens, takes the disease in a mild form, which causes its 
tail to drop off, as a rule about a foot from the root, and 
becomes proof against future attacks. It seems cruel to 
rob the animal of his tail, especially in a country where 
there are so many flies, but it is better to sacrifice the tail 
and keep the ox than to lose both tail and ox, for a tail 
without an ox is not much good except to dust with. Still 
it does look odd to trek along behind twenty stumps, where 
there ought to be tails. It seems as though nature had 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


83 


made a trifling mistake, and stuck the stern ornaments of 
a lot of prize bulldogs on to the rumps of the oxen. 

Next came the question of provisioning and medicines, 
one which required the most careful consideration, for 
what one had to do was to avoid lumbering the wagon up, 
and yet take everything absolutely necessary. Fortunate- 
ly, it turned out that Good was a bit of a doctor, having at 
some period m his previous career managed to pass through 
a course of medical and surgical instruction, which he had 
more or less kept up. He was not, of course, qualified, but 
he knew more about it than many a man who could write 
M.D. after his name, as we found out afterwards, and he 
had a splendid travelling medicine-chest and a set of in- 
struments. While we were at Durban he cut off a Kaffir’s 
big toe in a way which it was a pleasure to see. But he 
was quite flabbergasted wffien the Kaffir, who had sat 
stolidly watching the operation, asked him to put on an- 
other, saying that a “ white one ” would do at a pinch. 

There remained, when these questions were satisfacto- 
rily settled, two further important points for consideration, 
namely, that of arms and that of servants. As to the arms 
I cannot do better than put down a list of those we finally 
decided on from among the ample store that Sir Henry 
had brought with him from England, and those which I 
had. I copy it from my pocket-book, where I made the 
entry at the time: 

“ Three heavy breechloading double-eight elephant guns, 
weighing about fifteen pounds each, with a charge of eleven 
drachms of black powder.” Two of these were by a well- 
known London firm, most excellent makers, but I do not 
know by whom mine, which was not so highly finished, 
was made. I had used it on several trips, and shot a good 
3 


34 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


many elephants with it, and it had always proved a most 
superior weapon, thoroughly to be relied on. 

“Three double .500 expresses, constructed to carry a 
charge of six drachms,” sweet weapons, and admirable 
for medium-sized game, such as eland or sable antelope, or 
for men, especially in an open country and with the semi- 
hollow bullet. 

“One double No. 12 central-fire Keeper’s shotgun, mil 
choke both barrels.” This gun proved of the greatest 
service to us afterwards in shooting game for the pot. 

“ Three Winchester repeating rifles (not carbines), spare 
guns. 

“Three single-action Colt’s revolvers, with the heavier 
pattern of cartridge.” 

This was our total armament, and the reader will doubt- 
less observe that the weapons of each class were of the 
same make and calibre, so that the cartridges were inter- 
changeable, a very important point. I make no apology 
for detailing it at length, for every experienced hunter 
will know how vital a proper supply of guns and ammuni- 
tion is to the success of an expedition. 

Now as to the men who were to go with us. After 
much consultation we decided that their number should 
be limited to five, namely, a driver, a leader, and three 
servants. 

The driver and leader I got without much difiSculty, 
two Zulus, named respectively Goza and Tom ; but the 
servants were a more difiicult matter. It was necessary 
that they should be thoroughly trustworthy and brave 
men, as in a business of this sort our lives might depend 
upon their conduct. At last I secured two, one a Hot- 
tentot called Ventvogel (wind-bird), and one a little Zulu 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


85 


named Khiva, who had the merit of speaking English per- 
fectly. Ventvogel I had known before; he was one of the 
most perfect “ spoorers ” (game-trackers) I ever had to do 
with, and tough as whipcord. He never seemed to tire. 
But he had one failing, so common with his race, drink. 
Put him within reach of a bottle of grog and you could 
not trust him. But as we were going beyond the region 
of grog-shops this little weakness of his did not so much 
matter. 

Having got these two men I looked in vain for a third 
to suit my purpose, so we determined to start without one, 
trusting to luck to find a suitable man on our way up coun- 
try. But on the evening before the day we had fixed for 
our departure the Zulu Khiva informed me that a man 
was waiting to see me. Accordingly when we had done 
dinner, for we were at table at the time, I told him to 
bring him in. Presently a very tall, handsome-looking 
man, somewhere about thirty years of age, and very light- 
colored for a Zulu, entered, and, lifting his knob-stick by 
way of salute, squatted himself down in the corner on his 
haunches and sat silent. I did not take any notice of him 
for a while, for it is a great mistake to do so. If you rush 
into conversation at once a Zulu is apt to think you a per- 
son of little dignity or consideration. I observed, however, 
that he was a “ Keshla ” (ringed man), that is, that he wore 
on his head the black ring, made of a species of gum pol- 
ished with fat and worked in with the hair, usually assumed 
by Zulus on attaining a certain age or dignity. Also it 
struck me that his face was familiar to me. 

“Well,” I said at last, “what is your name?” 

“ Umbopa,” answered the man, in a slow, deep voice. 

“I have seen your face before.” 


36 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


‘^Yes; the Inkoosi (chief) saw my face at the place of 
the Little Hand (Isandhlwana) the day before the battle.” 

Then I remembered. I had been one of Lord Chelms- 
ford’s guides in that unlucky Zulu war, and had had the 
good-fortune to leave the camp in charge of some wagons 
the day before the battle. While I had been waiting for 
the cattle to be inspanned I had fallen into conversation 
with this man, who held some small command among . the 
native auxiliaries, and he had expressed to me his doubts 
of the safety of the camp. At the time I had told him to 
hold his tongue, and leave such matters to wiser heads; 
but afterwards I thought of his words. 

“I remember,” I said; ‘‘what is it you want?” 

“ It is this, ‘ Macumazahn ’ (that is my Kaffir name, and 
means the man who gets up in the middle of the night; or, 
in vulgar English, he who keeps his eyes open). I hear 
that you go on a great expedition far into the north with 
the white chiefs from over the water. Is it a true word ?” 

“ It is.” 

“I hear that you go even to the Lukanga River, a 
moon’s journey beyond the Manica country. Is this so 
also, ‘ Macumazahn ?’ ” 

“Why do you ask whither we go? What is it to 
thee?” I answered, suspiciously, for the objects of our 
journey had been kept a dead secret. 

“It is this, O white men, that if indeed you travel so 
far I would travel with you.” 

There was a certain assumption of dignity in the man’s 
mode of speech, and especially in his use of the words “ O 
white men,” instead of “ O Inkosis ” (chiefs), which struck 
me. 

“You forget yourself a little,” I said. “Your words 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


37 


come out unawares. That is not the way to speak. What 
is your name, and where is your kraal ? Tell us, that we 
may know with whom we have to deal. ” 

“ My name is Umhopa. I am of the Zulu people, yet 
not of them. The house of my tribe is in the far north; 
it was left behind when the Zulus came down here a 
‘thousand years ago,’ long before Chaka reigned in Zulu- 
land. I have no kraal. I have wandered for many years. 
I came from the north as a child to Zululand. I was 
Cetywayo’s man in the Nkomabakosi regiment. I ran 
away from Zululand and came to Natal because I want- 
ed to see the white man’s ways. Then I served against 
Cetywayo in the war. Since then I have been working 
in Natal. Now I am tired, and would go north again. 
Here is not my place. I want no money, but I am a 
brave man, and am worth my place and meat. I have 
spoken.” 

I was rather puzzled at this man and his way of speech. 
It was evident to me from his manner that he was in the 
main telling the truth, but he was somehow different from 
the ordinary run of Zulus, and I rather mistrusted his offer 
to come without pay. Being in a difficulty, I translated 
his words to Sir Henry and Good, and asked them their 
opinion. Sir Henry told me to ask him to stand up. 
Urabopa did so, at the same time slipping off the long 
military great-coat he wore, and revealing himself naked 
except for the moocha round his centre and a necklace of 
lions’ claws. He certainly was a magnificent-looking man; 
I never saw a finer native. Standing about six foot three 
high, he was broad in proportion, and very shapely. In 
that light, too, his skin looked scarcely more than dark, 
except here and there where deep, black scars marked old 


38 


KING SOLOMON^S MINES. 


assegai wounds. Sir Henry walked up to him and looked 
into his proud, handsome face. 

‘‘They make a good pair, don’t they?” said Good; 
“ one as big as the other.” 

“I like your looks, Mr. Umbopa, and I will take you as 
my servant,” said Sir Henry in English. 

Umbopa evidently understood him, for he answered in 
Zulu, “It is well;” and then, with a glance at the white 
man’s great stature and breadth, “ we are men, you and I ” 


CHAPTER IV. 

AN ELEPHANT HUNT. 

How I do not propose to narrate at full length all the 
incidents of our long journey up to Sitanda’s Kraal, near 
the junction of the Lukanga and Kalukwe rivers, a jour- 
ney of more than a thousand miles from Durban, the last 
three hundred or so of which, owing to the frequent pres- 
ence of the dreadful ‘‘ tsetse ” fly, whose bite is fatal to all 
animals except donkeys and men, we had to make on foot. 

We left Durban at the end of January, and it was in 
the second week of May that we camped near Sitanda’s 
Kraal. Our adventures on the way were many and vari- 
ous, but as they were of the sort which befall every Afri- 
can hunter, I shall not — with one exception to be present- 
ly detailed — set them down here, lest I should render this 
history too wearisome. 

At Inyati, the outlying trading station in the Matabele 
country, of which Lobengula (a great scoundrel) is king, 
we with many regrets parted from our comfortable wagon. 
Only twelve oxen remained to us out of the beautiful span 
of twenty which I had bought at Durban. One we had 
lost from the bite of a cobra, three had perished from 
poverty and the want of water, one had been lost, and the 
other three had died from eating the poisonous herb called 
‘‘ tulip.” Five more sickened from this cause, but we man- 
aged to cure them with doses of an infusion made by boil- 
ing down the tulip-leaves. If administered in time this 


40 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


is a very effective antidote. The wagon and oxen we left 
in the immediate charge of Goza and Tom, the driver and 
leader, both of them trustworthy boys, requesting a wor- 
thy Scotch missionary who lived in this wild place to keep 
an eye to it. Then, accompanied by Umbopa, Khiva, 
Ventvogel, and half a dozen bearers whom we hired on 
the spot, we started off on foot upon our wild quest. I 
remember we were all a little silent on the occasion of 
that departure, and I think that each of us was wonder- 
ing if we should ever see that wagon again; for my part 
I never expected to. For a while we tramped on in si- 
lence, till Umbopa, who was marching in front, broke into 
a Zulu chant about how some brave men, tired of life and 
the tameness of things, started off into a great wilderness 
to find new things or die, and how, lo, and behold! when 
they had got far into the wilderness, they found it was 
not a wilderness at all, but a beautiful place full of young 
wives and fat cattle, of game to hunt and enemies to kill. 

Then we all laughed and took it for a good omen. He 
was a cheerful savage, was Umbopa, in a dignified sort of 
way, when he had not got one of his fits of brooding, 
and had a wonderful knack of keeping one’s spirits up. 
We all got very fond of him. 

And now for the one adventure I am going to treat my- 
self to, for I do heartily love a hunting yarn. 

About a fortnight’s march from Inyati we came across 
a peculiarly beautiful bit of fairly-watered wooded coun- 
try. The kloofs in the hills were covered with dense bush, 
“idoro” bush as the natives call it, and in some places 
with the “ wacht-een-beche ” (wait-a-little) thorn, and there 
were great quantities of the beautiful “ machabell ” tree, 
laden with refreshing yellow fruit with enormous stones. 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


41 


This tree is the elephant’s favorite food, and there were 
not wanting signs that the great brutes were about, for 
not only was their spoor frequent, but in many places the 
trees were broken down and even uprooted. The elephant 
is a destructive feeder. 

One evening, after a long day’s march, we came to a 
spot of peculiar loveliness. At the foot of a bush-clad 
hill was a dry river-bed, in which, however, were to be 
found pools of crystal water all trodden round with the 
hoof -prints of game. Facing this hill was a parklike 
plain, where grew clumps of flat-topped mimosa, varied 
with occasional glossy-leaved machabells, and all round 
was the great sea of pathless, silent bush. 

As we emerged into this river-bed path we suddenly 
started a troop of tall giraffes, who galloped, or, rather, 
sailed off, with their strange gait, their tails screwed up 
over their backs, and their hoofs rattling like castanets. 
They were about three hundred yards from us, and there- 
fore practically out of shot, but Good, who was walking 
ahead and had an express loaded with solid ball in his 
hand,^could not resist, but upped gun and let drive at the 
last, a young cow. By some extraordinary chance the ball 
struck it full on the back of the neck, shattering the spinal 
column, and that giraffe went rolling head over heels just 
like a rabbit. I never saw a more curious thing. 

Curse it !” said Good — for I am sorry to say he had 
a habit of using strong language when excited — contract- 
ed no doubt, in the course of his nautical career; curse it, 
I’ve killed him.” 

‘‘Ou, Bougwan,” ejaculated the KaflSrs; ‘‘ou! ou!” 

They called Good ‘‘ Bougwan ” (glass eye) because of 
his eyeglass. 


42 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


Oh, ‘ Bougwan!’ ” re-echoed Sir Henry and I; and from 
that day Good’s reputation as a marvellous shot was estab- 
lished, at any rate among the Kaffirs. Really he was a 
bad one, but whenever he missed we overlooked it for the 
sake of that giraffe. 

Having set some of the “ boys ” to cut off the best of 
the giraffe meat, we went to work to build a “ scherm ” 
near one of the pools about a hundred yards to the right 
of it. This is done by cutting a quantity of thorn bushes 
and laying them in the shape of a circular hedge. Then 
the space enclosed is smoothed, and dry tambouki grass, if 
obtainable, is made into a bed in the centre, and a fire or 
fires lighted. 

By the time the ‘‘scherm” was finished the moon was 
coming up, and our dinner of giraffe steaks and roasted 
marrow-bones was ready. How we enjoyed those marrow- 
bones, though it was rather a job to crack them! I know 
no greater luxury than giraffe marrow, unless it is ele- 
phant’s heart, and we had that on the morrow. We ate 
our simple meal, pausing at times to thank Good for his 
wonderful shot, by the light of the full moon, and then we 
began to smoke and yarn, and a curious picture we must 
have made squatted there round the fire. I, with my short 
grizzled hair sticking up straight, and Sir Henry with his 
yellow locks, which were getting rather long, were rather 
a contrast, especially as I am thin and short and dark, 
weighing only nine stone and a half, and Sir Henry is tall 
and broad and fair, and weighs fifteen. But perhaps the 
most curious-looking of the three, taking all the circum- 
stances of the case into consideration, was Captain John 
Good, R.K. There he sat upon a leather bag, looking just 
as though he had come in from a comfortable day’s shoot- 


KING SOLOMON'S MINES. 


43 


ing in a civilized country, absolutely clean, tidy, and well- 
dressed. He had on a shooting-suit of brown tweed, with 
a hat to match, and neat gaiters. He was, as usual, beau- 
tifully shaven, his eyeglass and his false teeth appeared 
to be in perfect order, and altogether he was the neatest 
man I ever had to do with in the wilderness. He even 
had on a collar, of which he had a supply, made of white 
gutta-percha. 

‘‘You see, they weigh so little,” he said to me, inno- 
cently, when I expressed my astonishment at the fact; “I 
always liked to look like a gentleman.” 

Well, there we all sat yarning away in the beautiful 
moonlight, and watching the Kaffirs a few yards off suck- 
ing their intoxicating “daccha” in a pipe of which the 
mouthpiece was made of the horn of an eland, till they 
one by one rolled themselves up in their blankets and went 
to sleep by the fire, that is, all except Umbopa, who sat a 
little apart (I noticed he never mixed much with the other 
Kaffirs), his chin resting on his hand, apparently thinking 
deeply. 

Presently, from the depths of the bush behind us came 
a loud “ woof! woof!” “ That’s a lion,” said I, and we all 
started up to listen. Hardly had we done so, when from 
the pool, about a hundred yards off, came the strident trum- 
peting of an elephant. “Unkungunklovo ! Unkungun- 
klovo!” (elephant! elephant!) whispered the Kaffirs; and 
a few minutes afterwards we saw a succession of vast 
shadowy forms moving slowly from the direction of the 
water towards the bush. Up jumped Good, burning for 
slaughter, and thinking, perhaps, that it was as easy to kill 
elephant as he had found it to shoot giraffe, but I caught 
him by the arm and pulled him down. 


44 


KING SOLOMOn'^S MINES. 


‘‘It’s no good,” I said, “let them go.” 

“ It seems that we are in a paradise of game. I vote we 
stop here a day or two, and have a go at them,” said Sir 
Henry, presently. 

I was rather surprised, for hitherto Sir Henry had al- 
ways been for pushing on as fast as possible, more espe- 
cially since we had ascertained at Inyati that about two 
years ago an Englishman of the name of Neville had sold 
his wagon there, and gone on up country; but I suppose 
his hunter instincts had got the better of him. 

Good jumped at the idea, for he was longing to have a 
go at those elephants; and so, to speak the truth, did I, 
for it went against my conscience to let such a herd as that 
escape without having a pull at them. 

“All right, my hearties,” said I. “I think w'e want a 
little recreation. And now let’s turn in, for we ought to 
be off by dawn, and then perhaps we may catch them feed- 
ing before they move on.” 

The others agreed, and we proceeded to make prepara- 
tions. Good took off his clothes, shook them, put his eye- 
glass and his false teeth into his trousers pocket, and, fold- 
ing them all up neatly, placed them out of the dew under 
a corner of his mackintosh sheet. Sir Henry and I con- 
tented ourselves with rougher arrangements, and were soon 
curled up in our blankets and dropping off into the dream- 
less sleep that rewards the traveller. 

Going, going, go — What was that ? 

Suddenly from the direction of the water came a sound 
of violent scuffling, and next instant there broke upon our 
ears a succession of the most awful roars. There was no 
mistaking what they came from ; only a lion could make 
such a noise as that. We all jumped up and looked tow- 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


46 


ards the water, in the direction of which we saw a confused 
mass, yellow and black in color, staggering and struggling 
towards us. We seized our rifles, and, slipping on our 
veldtschoons (shoes made of untanned hide), ran out of 
the scherm towards it. By this time it had fallen, and was 
rolling over and over on the ground, and by the time we 
reached it it struggled no longer, but was quite still. 

And this was what it was. On the grass there lay a 
sable antelope bull — the most beautiful of all the African 
antelopes — quite dead, and transfixed by its great curved 
horns was a magnificent black -maned lion, also dead. 
What had happened, evidently, was this. The sable ante- 
lope had come down to drink at the pool, where the lion — 
no doubt the same we had heard — had been lying in wait. 
While the antelope was drinking the lion had sprung upon 
him, but was received upon the sharp, curved horns and 
transfixed. I once saw the same thing happen before. 
The lion, unable to free himself, had torn and beaten at 
the back and neck of the bull, which, maddened with fear 
and pain, had rushed on till it dropped dead. 

As soon as we had sufficiently examined the dead beasts 
we called the Kaffirs, and between us managed to drag 
their carcasses up to the scherm. Then we went in and 
laid down, to wake no more till dawn. 

With the first light we were up and making ready for 
the fray. We took with us the three eight-bore rifles, a 
good supply of ammunition, and our large water-bottles 
filled with weak, cold tea, which I have always found the 
best stuff to shoot on. After swallowing a little breakfast 
we started, Umbopa, Khiva, and Ventvogel accompanying 
us. The other Kaffirs we left, with instructions to skin the 
lion and the sable antelope, and cut up the latter. 


46 


'KING SOLOMON ''S MINES. 


We had no difficulty in finding the broad elephant trail, 
which Ventvogel, after examination, pronounced to have 
been made by between twenty and thirty elephants, most 
of them full-grown bulls. But the herd had moved on 
some way during the night, and it was nine o’clock, and 
already very hot, before, from the broken trees, bruised 
leaves and bark, and smoking dung, we knew we could not 
be far off them. 

Presently we caught sight of the herd, numbering, as 
Ventvogel had said, between twenty and thirty, standing 
in a hollow, having finished their morning meal, and flap- 
ping their great ears. It was a splendid sight. 

They were about two hundred yards from us. Taking 
a handful of dry grass I threw it into the air to see how 
the wind was ; for if once they winded us I knew they 
would be off before we could get a shot. Finding that, if 
anything, it blew from the elephants to us, we crept stealth- 
ily on, and, thanks to the cover, managed to get within forty 
yards or so of the great brutes. Just in front of us and 
broadside on stood three splendid bulls, one of them with 
enormous tusks. I whispered to the others that I would 
take the middle one ; Sir Henry covered the one to the 
left, and Good the bull with the big tusks. 

“ Now,” I whispered. 

Boom! boom! boom! went the three heavy rifles, and 
down went Sir Henry’s elephant, dead as a hammer, shot 
right through the heart. Mine fell on to its knees, and I 
thought he was going to die, but in another moment he 
was up and off, tearing along straight past me. As he 
went I gave him the second barrel in his ribs, and this 
brought him down in good earnest. Hastily slipping in 
two fresh cartridges, I ran up close to him, and a ball 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


47 


through the brain put an end to the poor brute’s struggles. 
Then I turned to see how Good had fared with the big 
bull, which I had heard screaming with rage and pain as I 
gave mine its quietus. On reaching the captain I found 
him in a great state of excitement. It appeared that on re- 
ceiving the bullet the bull had turned and come straight 
for his assailant, who had barely time to get out of his way, 
and then charged blindly on past him, in the direction of 
our encampment. Meanwhile the herd had crashed off in 
wild alarm in the other direction. 

For a while we debated whether to go after the wounded 
bull or follow the herd, and finally decided for the latter 
alternative, and departed thinking that we had seen the 
last of those big tusks. I have often wished since that we 
had. It was easy work to follow the elephants, for they 
had left a trail like a carriage-road behind them, crushing 
down the thick bush in their furious flight as though it 
were tambouki grass. 

But to come up with them was another matter, and we 
had struggled on under a broiling sun for over two hours 
before we found them. They were, with the exception of 
one bull, standing together, and I could see, from their 
unquiet way and the manner in which they kept lifting 
their trunks to test the air, that they were on the lookout 
for mischief. The solitary bull stood fifty yards or so this 
side of the herd, over which he was evidently keeping sen- 
try, and about sixty yards from us. Thinking that he 
would see or wind us, and that it would probably start 
them all off again if we tried to get nearer, especially as 
the ground was rather open, we all aimed at this bull and, 
at my whispered word, fired. All three shots took effect, 
and down he went, dead. Again the herd started on, but, 


48 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


unfortunately for them, about a hundred yards farther on 
was a nullah, or dried water-track, with steep banks, a 
place very much resembling the one the Prince Imperial 
was killed in in Zululand. Into this the elephants plunged, 
and when we reached the edge we found them struggling 
in wild confusion to get up the other bank, and filling the 
air with their screams, and trumpeting as they pushed one 
another aside in their selfish panic, just like so many human 
beings. Now was our opportunity, and, firing away as 
quick as we could load, we killed five of the poor beasts, 
and no doubt should have bagged the whole herd had 
they not suddenly given up their attempts to climb the 
bank and rushed headlong down the nullah. We were 
too tired to follow them, and perhaps also a little sick of 
slaughter, eight elephants being a pretty good bag for 
one day. 

So, after we had rested a little and the Kaffirs had cut 
out the hearts of two of the dead elephants for supper, we 
started homeward, very well pleased with ourselves, hav- 
ing made up our minds to send the bearers on the morrow 
to chop out the tusks. 

Shortly after we had passed the spot where Good had 
wounded the patriarchal bull we came across a herd of 
eland, but did not shoot at them, as w^e had already plenty 
of meat. They trotted past us, and then stopped behind 
a little patch of bush about a hundred yards away and 
wheeled round to look at us. As Good was anxious to 
get a near view of them, never having seen an eland close, 
he handed his rifle to Fmbopa, and, follow^ed by Khiva, 
strolled up to the patch of bush. We sat down and waited 
for him, not sorry of the excuse for a little rest. 

The sun was just going down in its reddest glory, and 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


49 


Sir Henry and I were admiring the lovely scene, when sud- 
denly we heard an elephant scream, and saw its huge and 
charging form with uplifted trunk and tail silhouetted 
against the great red globe of the sun. Next second we 
saw something else, and that was Good and Khiva tearing 
back towards us with the wounded bull (for it was he) 
charging after them. For a moment we did not dare to 
fire — though it would have been little use if we had at that 
distance — for fear of hitting one of them, and the next a 
dreadful thing happened: Good fell a victim to his passion 
for civilized dress. Had he consented to discard his trou- 
sers and gaiters as we had, and hunt in a flannel shirt and 
a pair of veldtschoons, it would have been all right, but 
as it was his trousers cumbered him in that desperate race, 
and presently, when he was about sixty yards from us, his 
boot, polished by the dry grass, slipped, and down he went 
on his face right in front of the elephant. 

We gave a gasp, for we knew he must die, and ran as 
hard as we could towards him. In three seconds it had 
ended, but not as we thought. Khiva, the Zulu boy, had 
seen his master fall, and, brave lad that he was, had turned 
and flung his assegai straight into the elephant’s face. It 
stuck in his trunk. 

With a scream of pain the brute seized the poor Zulu, 
hurled him to the earth, and, placing his huge foot on to 
his body about the middle, twined his trunk round his up- 
per part and tore him in two. 

We rushed up, mad with horror, and fired again and 
again, and presently the elephant fell upon the fragments 
of the Zulu. 

As for Good, he got up and wrung his hands over the 
brave man who had given his life to save him; and myself, 
4 


60 


KING Solomon’s min:5:s. 


though an old hand, I felt a lump in my throat. Umbopa 
stood and contemplated the huge dead elephant and the 
mangled remains of poor Khiva. 

“ Ah, well,” he said, presently, “ he is dead, but he died 
like a man.” 


CHAPTER V. 

OUR MARCH INTO THE DESERT. 

We had killed nine elephants, and it took us two days 
to cut out the tusks and get them home and bury them 
carefully in the sand under a large tree, which made a con- 
spicuous mark for miles round. It was a wonderfully fine 
lot of ivory. I never saw a better, averaging as it did be- 
tween forty and fifty pounds a tusk. The tusks of the 
great bull that killed poor Khiva scaled one hundred and 
seventy pounds the pair, as nearly as we could judge. 

As for Khiva himself, we buried what remained of him 
in an ant-bear hole, together with an assegai to protect 
himself with on his journey to a better world. On the 
third day we started on, hoping that we might one day 
return to dig up our buried ivory, and in due course, after 
a long and wearisome tramp, and many adventures which 
I have not space to detail, reached Sitanda’s Kraal, near 
the Lukanga River, the real starting-point of our expedi- 
tion. Very well do I recollect our arrival at that place. 
To the right was a scattered native settlement with a few 
stone cattle kraals and some cultivated lands down by the 
water, where these savages grew their scanty supply of 
grain, and beyond it great tracts of waving “ veldt ” cov- 
ered with tall grass, over which herds of the smaller game 
were wandering. To the left was the vast desert. This 
spot appeared to be the outpost of the fertile country, and 
it would be diflScult to say to what natural causes such an 


62 


'KING Solomon’s mines. 


abrupt change in the character of the soil was due. But 
so it was. Just below our encampment flowed a little 
stream, on the farther side of which was a stony slope, the 
same down which I had twenty years before seen poor 
Silyestre creeping back after his attempt to reach Solo- 
mon’s Mines, and beyond that slope began the waterless 
desert covered with a species of karoo shrub. It was even- 
ing when we pitched our camp, and the great fiery ball of 
the sun was sinking into the desert, sending glorious rays 
of many-colored light flying over all the vast expanse. 
Leaving Good to superintend the arrangement of our little 
camp, I took Sir Henry with me, and we walked to the top 
of the slope opposite and gazed out across the desert. The 
air was very clear, and far, far away I could distinguish 
the faint blue outlines, here and there capped with white, 
of the great Suliman Berg. 

There,” I said, there is the wall of Solomon’s Mines, ' 
but God knows if we shall ever climb it.” 

“ My brother should be there, and if he is I shall reach 
him somehow,” said Sir Henry, in that tone of quiet con- 
fidence which marked the man. 

“ I hope so,” I answered, and turned to go back to the 
camp, when I saw that we were not alone. Behind us, 
also gazing earnestly towards the far-off mountains, was 
the great Zulu, Umbopa. 

The Zulu spoke when he saw that I had observed him, 
but addressed himself to Sir Henry^ to whom he had at- 
tached himself. 

‘‘Is it to that land that thou wouldst journey, Incubu?” 
(a native word meaning, I believe, an elephant, and the • 
name given to Sir Henry by the Kaffirs) he said, pointing 
towards the mountains with his broad assegai. 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


53 


I asked him sharply what he meant by addressing his 
master in that familiar way. It is very well for natives 
to have a name for one among themselves, but it is not 
decent that they should call one by their heathenish ap- 
pellations to one’s face. The man laughed a quiet little 
laugh which angered me. 

“ How dost thou know that I am not the equal of the 
Inkosi I serve ?” he said. “ He is of a royal house, no 
doubt; one can see it in his size and in his eye; so, may- 
hap, am I. At least I am as great a man. Be my mouth, 
oh, Macumazahn, and say my words to the Inkoos Incubu, 
my master, for I would speak to him and to thee.” 

I was angry with the man, for I am not accustomed to 
be talked to in that way by Kaffirs, but somehow he im- 
pressed me, and besides I was curious to know what he 
had to say, so I translated, expressing my opinion at the 
same time that he was an impudent fellow, and that his 
swagger was outrageous. 

“Yes, Umbopa,” answered Sir Henry, “ I would journey 
there.” 

“The desert is wide and there is no water; the moun- 
tains are high and covered with snow, and man cannot 
say what is beyond them behind the place where the sun 
sets; how shalt thou come thither, Incubu, and wherefore 
dost thou go ?” 

I translated again. 

“ Tell him,” answered Sir Henry, “ that I go because I 
believe that a man of my blood, my brother, has gone 
there before me, and I go to seek him.” 

“That is so, Incubu; a man I met on the road told me 
that a white man went out into the desert two years ago 
towards those mountains with one servant, a hunter. 
They never came back.” 


54 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


“How do you know it was my brother?” asked Sir 
Henry. 

“ Nay, I know not. But the man, when I asked what 
the white man was like, said that he had your eyes and a 
black beard. He said, too, that the name of the hunter 
with him was Jim, that he was a Bechuana hunter and 
wore clothes.” 

“There is no doubt about it,” said I; “I knew Jim 
well.” 

Sir Henry nodded. “ I was sure of it,” he said. “ If 
George set his mind upon a thing he generally did it. It 
was always so from his boyhood. If he meant to cross 
the Suliman Berg he has crossed it, unless some accident 
has overtaken him, and we must look for him on the other 
side.” 

Umbopa understood English, though he rarely spoke it. 

“ It is a far journey, Incubu,” he put in, and I trans- 
lated his remark. 

“ Yes,” answered Sir Henry, “ it is far. But there is no 
journey upon this earth that a man may not make if he 
sets his heart to it. There is nothing, Umbopa, that he 
cannot do, there are no mountains he may not climb, there 
are no deserts he cannot cross, save a mountain and a 
desert of which you are spared the knowledge, if love 
leads him, and he holds his life in his hand counting it 
as nothing, ready to keep it or to lose it as Providence 
may order.” 

I translated. 

“ Great words, my father,” answered the Zulu (I always 
called him a Zulu, though he was not really one), “great, 
swelling words, fit to fill the mouth of a man. Thou art 
right, my father Incubu. Listen I what is life ? It is 


KING SOLOMON^S MINES. 


65 


a feather; it is the see^ of the grass, blown hither and 
thither, sometimes multiplying itself and dying in the act, 
sometimes carried away into the heavens. But if the seed 
be good and heavy it may perchance travel a little way on 
the road it will. It is well to try and journey one’s road 
and to fight with the air. Man must die. At the worst 
he can but die a little sooner. I will go with thee across 
the desert and over the mountains, unless perchance I fall 
to the ground on the way, my father.” 

He paused awhile, and then went on with one of those 
strange bursts of rhetorical eloquence which Zulus some- 
times indulge in, and which, to my mind, full as they are 
of vain repetitions, show that the race is by no means de- 
void of poetic instinct and of intellectual power. 

‘‘ What is life ? Tell me, O white men, who are wise, 
who know the secrets of the world, and the world of stars, 
and the world that lies above and around the stars; who 
flash their words from afar without a voice; tell me, white 
men, the secret of our life — whither it goes and whence it 
comes ! 

“Ye cannot answer; ye know not. Listen, I will an- 
swer. Out of the dark we came, into the dark we go. 
Like a storm-driven bird at night we fly out of the No- 
where ; for a moment our wings are seen in the light of 
the fire, and, lo ! we are gone again into the Nowhere. 
Life is nothing. Life is all. It is the hand with which 
we hold off death. It is the glow-worm that shines in 
the night-time and is black in the morning; it is the white 
breath of the oxen in winter; it is the little shadow that 
runs across the grass and loses itself at sunset.” 

“You are a strange man,” said Sir Henry, when he 
ceased. 


56 


KING SOLOMONIs MINES. 


Umbopa laughed. “It seems to me that we are much 
alike, Incubu. Perhaps I seek a brother over the moun- 
tains.” 

I looked at him suspiciously. “ What dost thou mean ?” 
I asked ; “ what dost thou know of the mountains ?” 

“ A little; a very little. There is a strange land there, 
a land of witchcraft and beautiful things; a land of brave 
people and of trees and streams and white mountains and 
of a great white road. I have heard of it. But what is 
the good of talking ? it grows dark. Those who live to 
see will see.” 

Again I looked at him doubtfully. The man knew too 
much. 

“Ye need not fear me, Macumazahn,” he said, interpret- 
ing my look. “ I dig no holes for ye to fall in. I make 
no plots. If ever we cross those mountains behind the 
sun, I will tell what I know. But death sits upon them. 
Be wise, and turn back. Go and hunt elephant. I have 
spoken.” 

And without another word he lifted his spear in saluta- 
tion and returned towards the camp, where shortly after- 
wards we found him cleaning a gun like any other Kaffir. 

“ That is an odd man,” said Sir Heniy. 

“ Yes,” answered I, “ too odd by half. I don’t like his 
little ways. He knows something, and won’t speak out. 
But I suppose it is no use quarrelling with him. We are 
in for a curious trip, and a mysterious Zulu won’t make 
much difference one way or another.” 

Next day we made our arrangements for starting. Of 
course it was impossible to drag our heavy elephant rifles 
and other kit with us across the desert, so, dismissing our 
bearers, we made an arrangement with an old native who 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


57 


had a kraal close by to take care of them till we returned. 
It went to my heart to leave such things as those sweet 
tools to the tender mercies of an old thief, of a savage 
whose greedy eyes I could see gloating over them. But 
I took some precautions. 

First of all I loaded all the rifles, and informed him that 
if he touched them they would go off. He instantly tried 
the experiment with my eight-bore, and it did go off, and 
blew a hole right through one of his oxen, which were 
just then being driven up to the kraal, to say nothing of 
knocking him head over heels with the recoil. He got 
up considerably startled, and not at all pleased at the loss 
of the ox, which he had the impudence to ask me to pay 
for, and nothing would induce him to touch them again. 

“Put the live devils up there in the thatch,” he said, 
“ out of the way, or they will kill us all.” 

Then I told him that if, when we came back, one of 
those things was missing I would kill him and all his peo- 
ple by witchcraft; and if we died and he tried to steal the 
things, I would come and haunt him and turn his cattle 
mad and his milk sour till life was a weariness, and make 
the devils in the guns come out and talk to him in a way 
he would not like, and generally gave him a good idea of 
judgment to come. After that he swore he would look 
after them as though they were his father’s spirit. He 
was a very superstitious old Kaffir and a great villain. 

Having thus disposed of our superfluous gear we ar- 
ranged the kit we five — Sir Henry, Good, myself. Umbo- 
pa, and the Hottentot Ventvogel — were to take with us 
on our journey. It was small enough, but do what we 
would we could not get it down under about forty pounds 
a man. This is what it consisted of; 


68 KING Solomon’s mines. 

The three express rifles and two hundred rounds of am* 
munition. 

The two Winchester repeating rifles (for Umbopa and 
Ventvogel), with two hundred rounds of cartridge. 

Three “Colt” revolvers and sixty rounds of cartridge. 

Five Cochrane’s water-bottles, each holding four pints. 

Five blankets. 

Twenty-five pounds’ weight of biltong (sun-dried game 
flesh). 

Ten pounds’ weight of best mixed beads for gifts. 

A selection of medicine, including an ounce of quinine, 
and one or two small surgical instruments. 

Our knives, a few sundries, such as a compass, matches, 
a pocket-filter, tobacco, a trowel, a bottle of brandy, and 
the clothes we stood in. 

This was our total equipment, a small one, indeed, for 
such a venture, but we dared not attempt to carry more. 
As it was, that load was a heavy one per man to travel 
across the burning desert with, for in such places every 
additional ounce tells upon one. But try as we would we 
could not see our way to reducing it. There was nothing 
but what was absolutely necessary. 

With great difficulty, and by the promise of a present 
of a good hunting-knife each, I succeeded in persuading 
three wretched natives from the village to come with us 
for the first stage, twenty miles, and to carry each a large 
gourd holding a gallon of water. My object was to en- 
able us to refill our water-bottles after the first night’s 
march, for we determined to start in the cool of the night. 
I gave out to these natives that we were going to shoot 
ostriches, with which the. desert abounded. They jab- 
bered and shrugged their shoulders, and said we were 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


59 


mad and should perish of thirst, which I must say seemed 
yery probable; but being desirous of obtaining the knives, 
which were almost unknown treasures up there, they con- 
sented to come, having probably reflected that, after all, 
our subsequent extinction would be no affair of theirs. 

All next day we rested and slept, and at sunset ate a 
hearty meal of fresh beef washed down with tea, the last, 
as Good sadly remarked, we were likely to drink for many 
a long day. Then, having made our final preparations, we 
lay down and waited for the moon to rise. At last, about 
nine o’clock, up she came in all her chastened glory, flood- 
ing the wild country with silver light, and throwing a 
weird sheen on the vast expanse of rolling desert before 
us, which looked as solemn and quiet and as alien to man 
as the star-studded firmament above. We rose up, and in 
a few minutes were ready, and yet we hesitated a little, as 
human nature is prone to hesitate on the threshold of an 
irrevocable step. We three white men stood there by our- 
selves. Umbopa, assegai in hand and the rifle across his 
shoulders, a few paces ahead of us, looked out fixedly 
across the desert; the three hired natives, with the gourds 
of water, and Yentvogel were gathered in a little knot 
behind. 

“ Gentlemen,” said Sir Henry, presently, in his low, deep 
voice, we are going on about as strange a journey as men 
can make in this world. It is very doubtful if we can 
succeed in it. But we are three men who will stand to- 
gether for good or for evil to the last. And now before 
we start let us for a moment pray to the Power who 
shapes the destinies of men, and who ages since has 
marked out our paths, that it may please him to direct 
©ur steps in accordance with his will.” 


60 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


Taking off his hat he, for the space of a minute or so, 
covered his face with his hands, and Good and I did like- 
wise. 

I do not say that I am a first-rate praying-man; few 
hunters are; and as for Sir Henry, I never heard him speak 
like that before, and only once since, though deep down 
in his heart I believe he is very religious. Good, too, is 
pious, though very apt to swear. Anyhow I do not think 
I ever, excepting on one single occasion, put in a better 
prayer in my life than I did during that minute, and some- 
how I felt the happier for it. Our future was so com- 
pletely unknown, and I think the unknown and the awful 
always bring a man nearer to his Maker. 

“ And now,” said Sir Henry, trek.” 

So we started. 

We had nothing to guide ourselves by except the dis- 
tant mountains and old Jos6 da Silvestra’s chart, which, 
considering that it was drawn by a dying and half dis- 
traught man on a fragment of linen three centuries ago, 
was not a very satisfactory sort of thing to work on. Still, 
such as it was, our sole hope of success depended on it. If 
we failed in finding that pool of bad water which the old 
don marked as being situated in the middle of the desert, 
about sixty miles from our starting-point and as far from 
the mountains, we must in all probability perish miserably 
of thirst. And to my mind the chances of our finding it 
in that great sea of sand and karoo scrub seemed almost 
infinitesimal. Even supposing Da Silvestra had marked it 
right, what was there to prevent its having been genera- 
tions ago dried up by the sun, or trampled in by game, or 
filled with drifting sand ? 

On we tramped silently as shades through the night and 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


61 


in the heavy sand. The karoo hushes caught our shins and 
retarded us, and the sand got into our veldtschoons and 
Good’s shooting-boots, so that every few miles we had to 
stop and empty them; but still the night was fairly cool, 
though the atmosphere was thick and heavy, giving a sort 
of creamy feel to the air, and we made fair progress. It 
was very still and lonely there in the desert, oppressively 
so indeed. Good felt this, and once began to whistle the 
Girl I left behind me,” but the notes sounded lugubrious 
in that vast place, and he gave it up. Shortly afterwards 
a little incident occurred which, though it made us jump 
at the time, gave rise to a laugh. Good, as the holder of 
the compass, which, being a sailor, of course he thoroughly 
understood, was leading, and we were toiling along in 
single file behind him, when suddenly we heard the sound 
of an exclamation, and he vanished. Next second there 
arose all round us a most extraordinary hubbub, snorts, 
groans, wild sounds of rushing feet. In the faint light, too, 
we could descry dim, galloping forms half hidden by 
wreaths of sand. The natives threw down their loads and 
prepared to bolt, but, remembering that there was nowhere 
to bolt to, cast themselves upon the ground and howled out 
that it was the devil. As for Sir Henry and myself, we 
stood amazed; nor was our amazement lessened when we 
perceived the form of Good careering off in the direction 
of the mountains, apparently mounted on the back of a 
horse and halloing like mad. In another second he threw 
up his arms, and we heard him come to the earth with a 
thud. Then I saw what had happened : we had stumbled 
right on to a herd of sleeping quagga, on to the back of 
one of which Good had actually fallen, and the brute had 
naturally enoujs:h £:ot up and made off with him. Singing 


62 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


out to the others that it was all right, I ran towards Good, 
much afraid lest he should be hurt, but to my great relief 
found him sitting in the sand, his eye-glass still fixed firm- 
ly in his eye, rather shaken and very much startled, but 
not in any way injured. 

After this we travelled on without any further misad- 
venture till after one o’clock, when we called a halt, and 
having drunk a little water, not much, for water was pre- 
cious, and rested for half an hour, started on again. 

On, on we went, till at last the east began to blush like 
the cheek of a girl. Then there came faint rays of prim- 
rose light that changed presently to golden bars, through 
which the dawn glided out across the desert. The stars 
grew pale and paler still till at last they vanished; the 
golden moon waxed w’an, and her mountain ridges stood 
out clear against her sickly face like the bones on the 
face of a dying man; then came spear upon spear of glori- 
ous light flashing far away across the boundless wilder- 
ness, piercing and firing the veils of mist till the desert 
was draped in a tremulous golden glow, and it was day. 

Still we did not halt, though by this time we should 
have been glad enough to do so, for we knew that when 
once the sun was fully up it would be almost impossible 
for us to travel in it. At length, about six o’clock, we 
spied a little pile of rocks rising out of the plain, and to 
this we dragged ourselves. As luck would have it, here 
we found an overhanging slab of rock carpeted beneath 
with smooth sand, which afforded a most grateful shelter 
from the heat. Underneath this we crept, and having 
drank some water each and eaten a bit of biltong, we lay 
down and were soon sound asleep. 

It was three o’clock in the afternoon before we woke, to 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


6S 


find our three bearers preparing to return. They had al- 
ready had enough of the desert, and no number of knives 
would have tempted them to come a step farther. So we 
had a hearty drink, and, having emptied our water-bottles, 
filled them up again from the gourds they had brought 
with them, and then watched them depart on their twenty 
miles’ tramp home. 

At half -past four we also started on. It was lonely and 
desolate work, for, with the exception of a few ostriches, 
there was not a single living creature to be seen on all the 
vast expanse of sandy plain. It was evidently too dry for 
game, and, with the exception of a deadly -looking cobra 
or two, we saw no reptiles. One insect, however, was 
abundant, and that was the common or house fly. There 
they came, “ not as single spies, but in battalions,” as I 
think the Old Testament says somewhere. He is an ex- 
traordinary animal, is the house fly. Go where you will 
you find him, and so it must always have been. I have seen 
him enclosed in amber which must, I was told, have been 
half a million years old, looking exactly like his descend- 
ant of to-day, and I have little doubt that when the last 
man lies dying on the earth he will be buzzing round — 
if that event should happen to occur in summer — watch- 
ing for an opportunity to settle on his nose. 

At sunset we halted, waiting for the moon to rise. At 
ten she came up beautiful and serene as ever, and, with 
one halt about two o’clock in the morning, we trudged 
wearily on through the night, till at last the welcome sun 
put a period to our labors. We drank a little and flung 
ourselves down, thoroughly tired out, on the sand, and 
were soon all asleep. There was no need to set a watch, 
for we had nothing to fear from anybody or anything in 


64 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


that vast, untenanted plain. Our only enemies were heat, 
thirst, and flies, but far rather would I have faced any 
danger from man or beast than that awful trinity. This 
time we were not so lucky as to find a sheltering rock to 
guard us from the glare of the sun, with the result that 
about seven o’clock we woke up experiencing the exact 
sensations one would attribute to a beefsteak on a gridiron. 
We were literally being baked through and through. The 
burning sun seemed to be sucking our very blood out of 
us. We sat up and gasped. 

“ Phew !” said I, grabbing at the halo of flies which 
buzzed cheerfully round my head. The heat did not af- 
fect them. 

“ My word,” said Sir Henry. 

“ It is hot !” said Good. 

It was hot, indeed, and there was not a bit of shelter to 
be had. Look where we would there was no rock or tree; 
nothing but an unending glare, rendered dazzling by the 
hot air which danced over the surface of the desert as it 
does over a red-hot stove. 

“ What is to be done ?” asked Sir Henry ; ‘‘ we can’t 
stand this for long.” 

We looked at each other blankly. 

‘‘I have it,” said Good; ‘‘we must dig a hole and get 
into it, and cover ourselves with the karoo bushes.” 

It did not seem a very promising suggestion, but at least 
it was better than nothing, so we set to work, and, with 
the trowel we had brought with us and our hands, suc- 
ceeded in about an hour in delving out a patch of ground 
about ten feet long by twelve wide to the depth of two 
feet. Then we cut a quantity of low scrub with our hunt- 
ing-knives, and, creeping into the hole, pulled it over us all. 


KING SOLOMON^S MINKS. 


65 


with the exception of Ventvogel, on whom, being a Hot- 
tentot, the sun had no particular effect. This gave us 
some slight shelter from the burning rays of the sun, but 
the heat in that amateur grave can be better imagined 
than described. The Black Hole of Calcutta must have 
been a fool to it ; indeed, to this moment, I do not know 
how we lived through the day. There we lay panting, 
and every now and again moistening our lips from our 
scanty supply of water. Had we followed our inclinations 
we should have finished off all we had in the first two hours, 
but we had to exercise the most rigid care, for if our wa- 
ter failed us we knew that we must quickly perish miser- 
ably. 

But everything has an end, if only you live long enough 
to see it, and somehow that miserable day wore on towards 
evening. About three o’clock in the afternoon we deter- 
mined that we could stand it no longer. It would be bet- 
ter to die walking than to be slowly killed by heat and 
thirst in that dreadful hole. So, taking each of us a little 
drink from our fast diminishing supply of water now 
heated to about the same temperature as a man’s blood, 
we staggered on. 

We had now covered some fifty miles of desert. If my 
reader will refer to the rough copy and translation of old 
Da Silvestra’s map he will see that the desert is marked 
as being forty leagues across, and the ‘‘pan bad water” 
is set down as being about in the middle of it. Now, forty 
leagues is one hundred and twenty miles; consequently, we 
ought at the most to be within twelve or fifteen miles of 
the water, if any should really exist. 

Through the afternoon we crept slowly and painfully 
along, scarcely doing more than a mile and a half an hour, 
5 


66 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


At sunset we again rested, waiting for the moon, and, af- 
ter drinking a little, managed to get some sleep. 

Before we lay down Umbopa pointed out to us a slight 
and indistinct hillock on the flat surface of the desert about 
eight miles away. At the distance it looked like an ant- 
hill, and as I was dropping off to sleep I fell to wondering 
what it could be. 

With the moon we started on again, feeling dreadfully 
exhausted, and suffering tortures from thirst and prickly 
heat. Nobody who has not felt it can know what we 
went through. We no longer walked, we staggered, now 
and again falling from exhaustion, and being obliged to 
call a halt every hour or so. We had scarcely energy left 
in us to speak. Up to now Good had chatted and joked, 
for he was a merry fellow ; but now he had not a joke left 
in him. 

At last, about two o’clock, utterly worn out in body and 
mind, we came to the foot of this queer hill, or sand kop- 
pie, which did at first sight resemble a gigantic ant-heap 
about a hundred feet high, and covering at the base nearly 
a morgen (two acres) of ground. 

Here we halted, and, driven by our desperate thirst, 
sucked down our last drops of water. We had but half a 
pint a head, and we could each have drank a gallon. 

Then we lay down. Just as I was dropping off to sleep 
I heard Umbopa remark to himself in Zulu, 

“ If we cannot find water we shall all be dead before the 
moon rises to-morrow.” 

I shuddered, hot as it was. The near prospect of such 
an awful death is not pleasant, but even the thought of it 
could not keep me from sleeping. 


CHAPTER VI. 
water! water! 

Ik two hours’ time, about four o’clock, I woke up. As 
soon as the first heavy demand of bodily fatigue had been 
satisfied the torturing thirst from which I was suffering 
asserted itself. I could sleep no more. I had been dream- 
ing that I was bathing in a running stream with green 
banks, and trees upon them, and I awoke to find myself in 
that arid wilderness, and to remember that, as XJmbopa 
had said, if we did not find water that day we must cer- 
tainly perish miserably. "No human creature could live 
long without water in that heat. I sat up and rubbed my 
grimy face with my dry and horny hands. My lips and 
eyelids were stuck together, and it was only after some 
rubbing and with an effort that I was able to open them. 
It was not far off the dawn, but there was none of the 
bright feel of dawn in the air, which was thick with a hot 
murkiness I cannot describe. The others were still sleep- 
ing. Presently it began to grow light enough to read, so 
I drew out a little pocket copy of the Ingoldsby Legends ” 
I had brought with me, and read the “ Jackdaw of Rheims.” 
When I got to where 

“ A nice little boy held a golden ewer, 

Embossed, and filled with water as pure 
As any that flows between Rheims and Namur,” 

I literally smacked my cracked lips, or, rather, tried to 
smack them. The mere thought of that pure water made 


68 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


me mad. If the cardinal had been there with his bell, 
book, and candle, I would have whipped in and drank his 
water up, yes, even if he had already filled it with the suds 
of soap worthy of washing the hands of the pope, and I 
knew that the whole concentrated curse of the Catholic 
Church should fall upon me for so doing. I almost think 
I must have been a little light-headed with thirst and 
weariness and want of food ; for I fell to thinking how as- 
tonished the cardinal and his nice little boy and the jack- 
daw would have looked to see a burned-up, brown-eyed, 
grizzled-haired little elephant-hunter suddenly bound in 
and put his dirty face into the basin and swallow every 
drop of the precious water. The idea amused me so that 
I laughed or rather cackled aloud, which woke the others 
up, and they began to rub their dirty faces and get their 
gummed-up lips and eyelids apart. 

As soon as we were all well awake we fell to discussing 
the situation, which was serious enough. Not a drop of 
water was left. We turned the water-bottles upside down 
and licked the tops, but it was a failure ; they were as dry 
as a bone. Good, who had charge of the bottle of brandy, 
got it out and looked at it longingly ; but Sir Henry 
promptly took it away from him, for to drink raw spirit 
would only have been to precipitate the end. 

“ If we do not find water we shall die,” he said. 

If we can trust to the old don’s map there should be 
some about,” I said; but nobody seemed to derive much 
satisfaction from that remark, it was so evident that no 
great faith could be put in the map. It was now gradual- 
ly growing light, and as we sat blankly staring at each 
other I observed the Hottentot Ventvogel rise and begin 
to walk about with his eyes on the ground. Presently he 


KING SOLOMON^S MINES. 


69 


Stopped short and, uttering a guttural exclamation, pointed 
to the earth. 

“ What is it ?” we exclaimed, and simultaneously rose 
and went to where he was standing pointing at the ground. 

‘‘Well,” I said, “it is pretty fresh Springbok spoor; 
what of it ?” 

“ Sprinbucks do not go far from water,” he answered in 
Dutch. 

“No,” I answered, “I forgot ; and thank God for it.” 

This little discovery put new life into us ; it is wonder- 
ful how, when one is in a desperate position, one catches 
at the slightest hope, and feels almost happy in it. On a 
dark night a single star is better than nothing. 

Meanwhile Ventvogel was lifting his snub nose, and 
sniffing the hot air for all the world like an old Impala 
ram who scents danger. Presently he spoke again. 

“ I smell water,” he said. 

Then we felt quite jubilant, for we knew what a wonder- 
ful instinct these wild-bred men possess. 

J ust at that moment the sun came up gloriously and re- 
vealed so grand a sight to our astonished eyes that for a 
moment or two we forgot even our thirst. 

For there, not more than forty or fifty miles from us, 
glittering like silver in the early rays of the morning sun, 
were Sheba’s breasts ; and stretching away for hundreds 
of miles on each side of them was the great Suliman Berg. 
Now that I, sitting here, attempt to describe the extraor- 
dinary grandeur and beauty of that sight, language seems 
to fail me. I am impotent even before its memory. There, 
straight before us, were two enormous mountains, the like 
of which are not, I believe, to be seen in Africa, if, indeed, 
there are any other such in the world, measuring each at 


70 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


least fifteen thousand feet in height, standing not more 
than a dozen miles apart, connected by a precipitous cliff 
of rock, and towering up in awful white solemnity straight 
into the sky. These mountains standing thus, like the pillars 
of a gigantic gateway, are shaped exactly like a woman’s 
breasts. Their bases swelled gently up from the plain, 
looking, at that distance, perfectly round and smooth ; and 
on the top of each was a vast round hillock covered with 
snow, exactly corresponding to the nipple on the female 
breast. The stretch of cliff which connected them ap- 
peared to be some thousand feet in height, and perfectly 
precipitous, and on each side of them, as far as the eye 
could reach, extended similar lines of cliff, broken only 
here and there by flat, table-topped mountains, something 
like the world-famed one at Cape Town ; a formation, by 
the way, very common in Africa. 

To describe the grandeur of the whole view is beyond 
my powers. There was something so inexpressibly solemn 
and overpowering about those huge volcanoes — for doubt- 
less they are extinct volcanoes — that it fairly took our 
breath away. For a while the morning lights played upon 
the snow and the brown and swelling masses beneath, and 
then, as though to veil the majestic sight from our curious 
eyes, strange mists and clouds gathered and increased 
around them, till presently we could only trace their pure 
and gigantic outline swelling ghostlike through the fleecy 
envelope. Indeed, as we afterwards discovered, they were 
normally wrapped in this curious gauzy mist, which doubt- 
less accounted for one not having made them out more 
clearly before. 

Scarcely had the mountains vanished into cloud-clad 
privacy before our thirst — literally a burning question — • 
reasserted itself. 


KING SOLOMON’S MINKS. 


71 


It was all very well for Ventvogel to say he smelled 
water, but look which way we would we could see no signs 
of it. So far as the eye could reach there was nothing but 
arid, sweltering sand and karoo scrub. We walked round 
the hillock and gazed about anxiously on the other side, 
but it was the same story, not a drop of water was to be 
seen ; there was no indication of a pan, a pool, or a 
spring. 

‘‘You are a fool,” I said, angrily, to Ventvogel ; “there 
is no water.” 

But still he lifted his ugly snub nose and sniffed. 

“I smell it. Baas” (master), he answered ; “it is some- 
where in the air.” 

“Yes,” I said, “no doubt it is in the clouds, and about 
two months hence it will fall and wash our bones.” 

Sir Henry stroked his yellow beard thoughtfully. “ Per- 
haps it is on the top of the hill,” he suggested. 

“ Rot,” said Good ; “ who ever heard of water being 
found on the top of a hill ?” 

“ Let us go and look,” I put in, and hopelessly enough 
we scrambled up the sandy sides of the hillock, Umbopa 
leading. Presently he stopped as though he were petrified. 

“Nanzia manzie !” (here is water), he cried, with a loud 
voice. 

W e rushed up to him, and there, sure enough, in a deep 
cup or indentation on the very top of the sand-koppie, was 
an undoubted pool of water. How it came to be in such 
a strange place we did not stop to inquire, nor did we 
hesitate at its black and uninviting appearance. It was 
water, or a good imitation of it, and that was enough for 
us. We gave a bound and a rush, and in another second 
were all down on our stomachs sucking up the uninviting 


72 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


fluid as tbougli it were nectar fit for tbe gods. Heavens, 
how we did drink ! Then, when we had done drinking, 
we tore off our clothes and sat down in it, absorbing the 
moisture through our parched skins. You, my reader, 
who have only to turn on a couple of taps and summon 
‘‘ hot ” and cold ” from an unseen, vasty boiler, can have 
little idea of the luxury of that muddy wallow in brack- 
ish, tepid water. 

After a while we arose from it, refreshed indeed, and fell 
to on our biltong, of which we had scarcely been able to 
touch a mouthful for twenty-four hours, and ate our fill. 
Then we smoked a pipe, and lay down by the side of that 
blessed pool under the overhanging shadow of the bank 
and slept till mid-day. 

All that day we rested there by the water, thanking our 
stars that we had been lucky enough to find it, bad as it 
was, and not forgetting to render a due share of gratitude 
to the shade of the long-departed Da Silvestra, who had 
corked it down so accurately on the tail of his shirt. The 
wonderful thing to us was that it should have lasted so 
long, and the only way that I can account for it is by the 
supposition that it is fed by some spring deep down in the 
sand. 

Having filled both ourselves and our water-bottles as 
full as possible, in far better spirits we started off again 
with the moon. That night we covered nearly five-and- 
twenty miles, but, needless to say, found no more water, 
though we were lucky enough on the following day to get 
a little shade behind some ant-heaps. When the sun rose 
and, for a while, cleared away the mysterious mists, Suli- 
man’s Berg and the two majestic breasts, now only about 
twenty miles off, seemed to be towering right above us. 


KING SOLOMON'S MINKS. 


73 


and looked grander than ever. At the approach of even- 
ing we started on again, and, to cut a long story short, by 
daylight next morning found ourselves upon the lowest 
slopes of Sheba’s left breast, for which we had been stead- 
ily steering. By this time our water was again exhausted 
and we were suffering severely from thirst, nor indeed 
could we see any chance of relieving it till we reached the 
snow line, far, far above us. After resting an hour or two, 
driven to it by our torturing thirst, we went on again, 
toiling painfully in the burning heat up the lava slopes, 
for we found that the huge base of the mountain was 
composed entirely of lava-beds belched out in some far- 
past age. 

By eleven o’clock we were utterly exhausted, and were, 
generally speaking, in a very bad way indeed. The lava 
clinker, over which we had to make our way, though com- 
paratively smooth compared with some clinker I have 
heard of, such as that on the island of Ascension, for in- 
stance, was yet rough enough to make our feet very sore, 
and this, together with our other miseries, had pretty well 
^finished us. A few hundred yards above us were some 
large lumps of lava, and towards these we made with the 
intention of lying down beneath their shade. We reached 
them, and to our surprise, so far as we had a capacity for 
surprise left in us, on a little plateau or ridge close by we 
saw that the lava was covered with a dense green growth. 
Evidently soil formed from decomposed lava had rested 
there, and in due course had become the receptacle of seeds 
deposited by birds. But we did not take much further in- 
terest in the green growth, for one cannot live on grass, 
like Nebuchadnezzar. That requires a special dispensa- 
tion of Providence and peculiar digestive organs. So we 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


74 

sat down under the rocks and groaned, and I, for one, heart- 
ily wished that we had never started on this fool’s errand. 
As we were sitting there I saw Umhopa get up and hobble 
off towards the patch of green, and a few minutes after- 
wards, to my great astonishment, I perceived that usually 
uncommonly dignified individual dancing and shouting 
like a maniac, and waving something green. Off we all 
scrambled towards him as fast as our wearied limbs would 
carry us, hoping that he had found water. 

“What is it, XJmbopa, son of a fool?” I shouted in 
Zulu. 

“It is food and water, Macumazahn,” and again he waved 
the green thing. 

Then I saw what he had got. It was a melon. We had 
hit upon a patch of wild melons, thousands of them, and 
dead ripe. 

“Melons !” I yelled to Good, who was next me; and in 
another second he had his false teeth fixed in one. 

I think we ate about six each before we had done, and, 
poor fruit as they were, I doubt if I ever thought anything 
nicer. 

But melons are not very satisfying, and when we had 
satisfied our thirst with their pulpy substance, and set a 
stock to cool by the simple process of cutting them in two 
and setting them end on in the hot sun to get cold by 
evaporation, we began to feel exceedingly hungry. We had 
still some biltong left, but our stomachs turned from bil- 
tong, and, besides, we had to be very sparing of it, for we 
could not say when we should get more food. Just at 
this moment a lucky thing happened. Looking towards 
the desert I saw a flock of about ten large birds flying 
straight towards us. 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


15 


“ Skit, Baas, skit !” (shoot, master, shoot), whispered the 
Hottentot, throwing himself on his face, an example which 
we all followed. 

Then I saw that the birds were a flock of pauw (bus- 
tards), and that they would pass within fifty j^ards of my 
head. Taking one of the repeating Winchesters, I waited 
till they were nearly over us, and then jumped on to my 
feet. On seeing me the pauw bunched up together, as I 
expected they would, and I fired two shots straight into 
the thick of them, and, as luck would have it, brought one 
down, a fine fellow, that weighed about twenty pounds. 
In half an hour we had a fire made of dry melon-stalks, 
and he was toasting over it, and we had such a feed as we 
had not had for a week. We ate that pauw — nothing 
was left of him but his bones and his beak — and felt not a 
little the better afterwards. 

That night we again went on with the moon, carrying 
as many melons as we could with us. As we got higher 
up we found the air get cooler and cooler, which was a 
great relief to us, and at dawn, so far as we could judge, 
were not more than about a dozen miles from the snow- 
line. Here we found more melons, so had no longer any 
anxiety about water, for we knew that we should soon get 
plenty of snow. But the ascent had now become very 
precipitous, and we made but slow progress, not more than 
a mile an hour. Also that night we ate our last morsel of 
biltong. As yet, with the exception of the pauw, we had 
seen no living thing on the mountain, nor had we come 
across a single spring or stream of water, which struck us 
as very odd, considering all the snow above us, which 
must, we thought, melt som-etimes. But as we afterwards 
discovered, owing to some cause, which it is quite beyond 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


V6 

my power to explain, all the streams flowed down upon 
the north side of the mountains. 

We now began to grow very anxious about food. We 
had escaped death by thirst, but it seemed probable that 
it was only to die of hunger. The events of the next three 
miserable days are best described by copying the entries 
made at the time in my note-book. 

21st May. — Started 11 a.m., finding the atmosphere 
quite cold enough to travel by day, carrying some water- 
melons with us. Struggled on all day, but saw no more 
melons, having, evidently, passed out of their district. Saw 
no game of any sort. Halted for the night at sundown, 
having had no food for many hours. Suffered much dur- 
ing the night from cold. 

22d. — Started at sunrise again, feeling very faint and 
weak. Only made five miles all day; found some patches 
of snow, of which we ate, but nothing else. Camped at 
night under the edge of a great plateau. Cold bitter. 
Drank a little brandy each, and huddled ourselves together, 
each wrapped up in our blanket to keep ourselves alive. 
Are now suffering frightfully from starvation and weari- 
ness. Thought that Ventvogel would have died during 
the night. 

23d. — Struggled forward once more as soon as the sun 
was well up, and had thawed our limbs a little. We are 
now in a dreadful plight, and I fear that unless we get 
food this will be our last day’s journey. But little brandy 
left. Good, Sir Henry, and IJmbopa bear up wonderfully, 
but Ventvogel is in a very bad way. Like most Hotten- 
tots, he cannot stand cold. Pangs of hunger not so bad, 
but have a sort of numb feeling about the stomach. Oth- 
ers say the same. We are now on a level with the pre- 


KING SOLOMON^S MINES. 


77 


oipitous chain, or wall of lava, connecting the two breasts, 
and the view is glorious. Behind us the great glowing 
desert rolls away to the horizon, and before us lies mile 
upon mile of smooth, hard snow almost level, but swelling 
gently upward, out of the centre of which the nipple of 
the mountain, which appears to be some miles in circum- 
ference, rises about four thousand feet into the sky. Not 
a living thing is to be seen. God help us, I fear our time 
has come. 

And now I will drop the journal, partly because it is 
not very interesting reading, and partly because what fol- 
lows requires perhaps rather more accurate telling. 

All that day (the 23d May) we struggled slowly on up 
the incline of snow, lying down from time to time to rest. 
A strange, gaunt crew we must have looked, as, laden as 
we were, we dragged our weary feet over the dazzling 
plain, glaring round us with hungry eyes. Not that there 
was much use in glaring, for there was nothing to eat. 
W e did not do more than seven miles that day. Just before 
sunset we found ourselves right under the nipple of Sheba’s 
left breast, which towered up thousands of feet into the 
air above us, a vast, smooth hillock of frozen snow. Bad 
as we felt, we could not but appreciate the wonderful scene, 
made even more wonderful by the flying rays of light from 
the setting sun, which here and there stained the snow 
blood red, and crowned the towering mass above us with 
a diadem of glory. 

“ I say,” gasped Good, presently, “ we ought to be some- 
where near the cave the old gentleman wrote about.” 

“Yes,” said I, “if there is a cave.” 

“ Come, Quatermain,” groaned Sir Henry, “ don’t talk 
like that ; I have every faith in the don ; remember the 
water. We shall find the nlace soon.” 


IS 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


** If we don’t find it before dark we are dead men, that 
is all about it,” was my consolatory reply. 

For the next ten minutes we trudged on in silence, 
when suddenly Umbopa, who was marching along beside 
me, wrapped up in his blanket and with a leather belt 
strapped so tight round his stomach, to “ make his hunger 
small,” as he said, that his waist looked like a girl’s, caught 
me by the arm. 

“ Look !” he said, pointing towards the springing slope 
of the nipple. 

I followed his glance, and perceived, some two hundred 
yards from us, what appeared to be a hole in the snow. 

“It is the cave,” said Umbopa. 

We made the best of our way to the spot, and found, 
sure enough, that the hole was the mouth of a cave, no 
doubt the same as that of which Da Silvestra wrote. We 
were none too soon, for just as we reached shelter the 
sun went down with startling rapidity, leaving the whole 
place nearly dark. In these latitudes there is but little 
twilight. We crept into the cave, which did not appear 
to be very big, and, huddling ourselves together for 
warmth, swallowed what remained of our brandy — barely 
a mouthful each — and tried to forget our miseries in sleep. 
But this the cold was too intense to allow us to do. I am 
convinced that at that great altitude the thermometer 
cannot have been less than fourteen or fifteen degrees be- 
low freezing-point. What this meant to us, enervated as 
we were by hardship, want of food, and the; great heat of 
the desert, my reader can imagine better than I can de- 
scribe. Suffice it to say that it was something as near 
death from exposure as I have ever felt. There we sat 
hour after hour through the bitter night, feeling the frost 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


Y9 

Wander round and nip us now in the finger, now in the 
foot, and now in the face. In vain did we huddle up closer 
and closer; there was no warmth in our miserable, starved 
carcasses. Sometimes one of us would drop into an un- 
easy slumber for a few minutes, but we could not sleep 
long, and perhaps it was fortunate, for I doubt if we should 
ever have woke again. I believe it was only by force of 
will that we kept ourselves alive at all. 

Not very long before dawn I heard the Hottentot Vent- 
vbgel, whose teeth had been chattering all night like cas- 
tanets, give a deep sigh, and then his teeth stopped chat- 
tering. I did not think anything of it at the time, con- 
cluding that he had gone to sleep. His back was resting 
against mine, and it seemed to grow colder and colder, till 
at last it was like ice. 

At length the air began to grow gray with light, then 
swift golden arrows came flashing across the snow, and at 
last the glorious sun peeped up above the lava wall and 
looked in upon our half-frozen forms and upon Ventvogel, 
sitting there among us stone dead. No wonder his back 
had felt cold, poor fellow. He had died when I heard 
him sigh, and was now almost frozen stiff. Shocked' be- 
yond measure, we dragged ourselves from the corpse 
(strange the horror we all have of the companionship of a 
dead body), and left it still sitting there, with its arms 
clasped round its knees. 

By this time the sunlight was pouring its cold rays (for 
here they were cold) straight in at the mouth of the cave. 
Suddenly I heard an exclamation of fear from some one, 
and turned my head down the cave. 

And this was what I saw. Sitting at the end of it, for 
it was not more than twenty feet long, was another form, 


80 KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 

of which the head rested on the chest and the long arms 
hung down. I stared at it, and saw that it too was a 
dmd maUj and what was more, a white man. 

The others saw it, too, and the sight proved too much 
for our shattered nerves. One and all we scrambled out 
of the cave as fast as our half-frozen limbs would allow. 


CHAPTER VII. 

Solomon’s road. 

Outside the cave we halted, feeling rather foolish. 

“ I am going back,” said Sir Henry. 

‘‘ Why ?” asked Good. 

“ Because it has struck me that — what we saw — may be 
my brother.” 

This was a new idea, and we re-entered the cave to put 
it to the proof. After the bright light outside our eyes, 
weak as they were with staring at the snow, could not for 
a while pierce the gloom of the cave. Presently, however, 
we grew accustomed to the semi-darkness, and advanced 
on to the dead form. 

Sir Henry knelt down and peered into its face. 

“ Thank God,” he said, with a sigh of relief, it is not 
my brother.” 

Then I went and looked. The corpse was that of a tall 
man in middle life, with aquiline features, grizzled hair, 
and a long black mustache. The skin was perfectly yel- 
low, and stretched tightly over the bones. Its clothing, 
with the exception of what seemed to be the remains of a 
pair of woollen hose, had been removed, leaving the skele- 
ton-like frame naked. Round the neck hung a yellow 
ivory crucifix. The corpse was frozen perfectly stiff. 

“ Who on earth can it be ?” said I. 

‘‘ Can’t you guess ?” asked Good. 

I shook my head. 

6 


83 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


“Why, the old don, Jose da Silvestra, of course — wh« 
else?” 

“ Impossible,” I gasped, “he died three hundred years 
ago.” 

“And what is there to prevent his lasting for three 
thousand years in this atmosphere I should like to know ?” 
asked Good. “ If only the air is cold enough flesh and 
blood will keep as fresh as New Zealand mutton forever, 
and Heaven knows it is cold enough here. The sun never 
gets in here ; no animal comes here to tear or destroy. 
No doubt his slave, of whom he speaks on the map, took 
off his clothes and left him. He could not have buried 
him alone. Look here,” he went on, stooping down and 
picking up a queer-shaped bone scraped at the end into a 
shai-p point, “ here is the ‘ cleft-bone ’ that he used to draw 
the map with.” 

We gazed astonished for a moment, forgetting our own 
miseries in the extraordinary and, as it seemed to us, 
semi-miraculous sight. 

“Ay,” said Sir Henry, “and here is where he got his 
ink from,” and he pointed to a small wound on the dead 
man’s left arm. “Did ever man see such a thing be- 
fore?” 

There was no longer any doubt about the matter, which 
I confess, for my own part, perfectly appalled me. There he 
sat, the dead man, whose directions, written some ten gen- 
erations ago, had led us to this spot. There in my own 
hand was the rude pen with which he had written them, 
and there round his neck was the crucifix his dying lips 
had kissed. Gazing at him my imagination could recon- 
struct the whole scene : the traveller dying of cold and 
starvation, and yet striving to convey the great secret he 


V 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


83 


had discovered to the world ; the awful loneliness of his 
death, of which the evidence sat before us. It even 
seemed to me that I could trace in his strongly-marked 
features a likeness to those of my poor friend Silvestre, his 
descendant, who had died twenty years ago in my arms, 
but perhaps that was fancy. At any rate, there he sat, a 
sad memento of the fate that so often overtakes those who 
would penetrate into the unknown ; and there probably he 
will still sit, crowned with the dread majesty of death, for 
centuries yet unborn, to startle the eyes of wanderers like 
ourselves, if any such should ever come again to invade 
his loneliness. The thing overpowered us, already nearly 
done to death as we were with cold and hunger. 

“ Let us go,” said Sir Henry, in a low voice ; ‘‘ stay, we 
will give him a companion,” and, lifting up the dead body 
of the Hottentot Ventvogel, he placed it near that of the 
old don. Then he stooped down and with a jerk broke 
the rotten string of the crucifix round his neck, for his 
fingers were too cold to attempt to unfasten it. I believe 
that he still has it. I took the pen, and it is before me 
as I write — sometimes I sign my name with it. 

Then, leaving those two, the proud white man of a past 
age and the poor Hottentot, to keep their eternal vigil in 
the midst of the eternal snows, we crept out of the cave 
into the welcome sunshine and resumed our path, wonder- 
ing in our hearts how many hours it would be before we 
were even as they are. 

When we had gone about half a mile we came to the 
edge of the plateau, for the nipple of the mountain did 
not rise out of its exact centre, though from the desert 
side it seemed to do so. What lay below us we could 
not see, for the landscape was wreathed in billows of 


84 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


morning mist. Presently, however, the higher layers of 
mist cleared a little, and revealed, some five hundred yards 
beneath us, at the end of a long slope of snow, a patch of 
green grass, through which a stream was running. Nor 
was this all. By the stream, basking in the morning sun, 
stood and lay a group of from ten to fifteen large antelopes 
— at that distance we could not see what they were. 

The sight filled us with an unreasoning joy. There 
was food in plenty if only we could get it. But the ques- 
tion was how to get it. The beasts were fully six hundred 
yards off, a very long shot, and one not to be depended on 
when one’s life hung on the results. 

Rapidly we discussed the advisability of trying to stalk 
the game, but finally reluctantly dismissed it. To begin 
with, the wind was not favorable, and further, we should 
be certain to be perceived, however careful we were, 
against the blinding background of snow which we should 
be obliged to traverse. 

‘‘ W ell, we must have a try from where we are,” said 
Sir Henry. “ Which shall it be, Quatermain, the repeat- 
ing rifies or the expresses ?” 

Here again was a question. The Winchester repeaters 
— of which we had two, Umbopa carrying poor Ventvo- 
gel’s as well as his own — were sighted up to a thousand 
yards, whereas the expresses were only sighted to three 
hundred and fifty, beyond which distance shooting with 
them was more or less guess-work. On the other hand, 
if they did hit, the express bullets, being expanding, were 
much more likely to bring the game down. It was a 
knotty point, but I made up my mind that we must risk 
it and use the expresses. 

‘‘Let each of us take the buck opposite to him. Aim 


KING SOLOMON'S MINES. 86 

well at the point of the shoulder, and high up,” said I ; 
‘‘ and Umbopa, do you give the word, so that we may all 
fire together.” 

Then came a pause, each man aiming his level best, as 
indeed one is likely to do when one knows that life itself 
depends upon the shot. 

“ Fire !” said Umbopa, in Zulu, and at almost the same 
instant the three rifles rang out loudly ; three clouds of 
smoke hung for a moment before us, and a hundred 
echoes went flying away over the silent snow. Presently 
the smoke cleared, and revealed — oh, joy ! — a great buck 
lying on its back and kicking furiously in its death agony. 
We gave a yell of triumph ; we were saved, we should 
not starve. W eak as we were, we i*ushed down the inter- 
vening slope of snow, and in ten minutes from the time of 
firing the animal’s heart and liver were lying smoking be- 
fore us. But now a new difficulty arose ; we had no fuel, 
and therefore could make no fire to cook them at. We 
gazed at each other in dismay. 

Starving men must not be fanciful,” said Good ; ‘‘ we 
must eat raw meat.” 

There was no other way out of the dilemma, and our 
gnawing hunger made the proposition less distasteful 
than it would otherwise have been. So we took the heart 
and liver and buried them for a few minutes in a patch 
of snow to cool them off. Then we washed them in the 
ice-cold water of the stream, and lastly ate them greedily. 
It sounds horrible enough, but, honestly, I never tasted 
anything so good as that raw meat. In a quarter of an 
hour we were changed men. Our life and our vigor came 
back to us, our feeble pulses grew strong again, and the 
blood went coursing through our veins. But, mindful of 


86 


KING SOLOMON^S MINES. 


the results of over-feeding on starving stomachs, we were 
careful not to eat too much, stopping while we were still 
hungry. 

“Thank God !” said Sir Henry ; “that brute has saved 
our lives. What is it, Quatermain ?” 

I rose and went to look at the antelope, for I was not 
certain. It was about the size of a donkey, with large, 
curved horns. I had never seen one like it before, the 
species was new to me. It was brown, with faint red 
stripes and a thick coat. I afterwards discovered that 
the natives of that wonderful country called the species 
“Inco.” It was very rare, and only found at a great alti- 
tude, where no other game would live. The animal was 
fairly shot high up in the shoulder, though whose bullet 
it was that brought it down we could not, of course, dis- 
cover. I believe that Good, mindful of his marvellous 
shot at the giraffe, secretly set it down to his own prowess, 
and we did not contradict him. 

We had been so busy satisfying our starving stomachs 
that we had hitherto not found time to look about us. 
But now, having set Umbopa to cut off as much of the 
best meat as we were likely to be able to carry, we began 
to inspect our surroundings. The mist had now cleared 
away, for it was eight o’clock, and the sun had sucked it 
up, so we were able to take in all the country before us at 
a glance. I know not how to describe the glorious pano- 
rama which unfolded itself to our enraptured gaze. I 
have never seen anything like it before, nor shall, I sup- 
pose, again. 

^ Behind and over us towered Sheba’s snowy breasts, and 
below, some five thousand feet beneath where we stood, 
lay league on league of the most lovely champaign coun- 


KING SOLOMON^S MINES. 


87 


try. Here were dense patches of lofty forest, there a 
great river wound its silvery way. To the left stretched 
a vast expanse of rich, undulating veldt or grass land, on 
which we could just make out countless herds of game or 
cattle, at that distance we could not tell which. This ex- 
panse appeared to be ringed in by a wall of distant moun- 
tains. To the right the country was more or less moun- 
tainous, that is, solitary hills stood up from its level, with 
stretches of cultivated lands between, among which we 
could distinctly see groups of dome -shaped huts. The 
landscape lay before us like a map, in which rivers flashed 
like silver snakes, and Alplike peaks crowned with wildly- 
twisted snow-wreaths rose in solemn grandeur, while over 
all was the glad sunlight and the wide breath of Nature’s 
happy life. 

Two curious things struck us as we gazed. First, that 
the country before us must lie at least flve thousand feet 
higher than the desert we had crossed, and, secondly, that 
all the rivers flowed from south to north. As we had pain- 
ful reason to know, there was no water at all on the south- 
ern side of the vast range on which we stood, but on the 
northern side were many streams, most of which appeared 
to unite with the great river we could trace winding away 
farther than we could follow it. 

We sat down for a while and gazed in silence at this 
wonderful view. Presently Sir Henry spoke. 

‘‘Isn’t there something on the map about Solomon’s 
Great Road ?” he said. 

I nodded, my eyes still looking out over the far country. 

“Well, look ; there it is !” and he pointed a little to our 
right. 

Good and I looked accordingly, and there, winding away 


88 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


towards the plain, was what appeared to be a wide turn- 
pike road. We had not seen it at first because it, on reach- 
ing the plain, turned behind some broken country. We 
did not say anything, at least not much ; we were begin- 
ning to lose the sense of wonder. Somehow it did not 
seem particularly unnatural that we should find a sort of 
Roman road in this strange land. We accepted the fact, 
that was all. 

‘‘Well,” said Good, “it must be quite near us if we cut 
off to the right. Hadn’t we better be making a start ?” 

This was sound advice, and so soon as we had washed 
our faces and hands in the stream we acted on it. For 
a mile or so we made our way over boulders an(^ across 
patches of snow, till suddenly, on reaching the top of the 
little rise, there lay the road at our feet. It was a splendid 
road cut out of the solid rock, at least fifty feet wide, and 
apparently well kept ; but the odd thing about it was that 
it seemed to begin there. We walked down and stood on 
it, but one single hundred paces behind us, in the direction 
of Sheba’s breasts, it vanished, the whole surface of the 
mountain being strewed with boulders interspersed with 
patches of snow. 

“ What do you make of that, Quatermain ?” asked Sir 
Henry. 

I shook my head, I could make nothing of it. 

“ I have it !” said Good ; “ the road no doubt ran right 
over the range and across the desert the other side, but 
the sand of the desert has covered it up, and above us it 
has been obliterated by some volcanic eruption of molten 
lava.” 

This seemed a good suggestion ; . at any rate, we accepted 
it, and proceeded down the mountain. It was a very dif- 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


89 


ferent business travelling along down hill on that magnif- 
icent pathway with full stomachs, to what it had been 
travelling up hill over the snow quite starved and almost 
frozen. Indeed, had it not been for melancholy recollec- 
tions of poor VentvogePs sad fate, and of that grim cave 
where he kept company with the old don, we should have 
been positively cheerful, notwithstanding the sense of un- 
known dangers before us. Every mile we walked the at- 
mosphere grew softer and balmier, and the country before 
u^ shone with a yet more luminous beauty. As for the 
road itself, I never saw such an engineering work, though 
Sir Henry said that the great road over the St. Gothard in 
Switzerland was very like it. No difficulty had been too 
great for the Old World engineer who designed it. At 
one place we came to a great ravine three hundred feet 
broad and at least a hundred deep. This vast gulf was 
actually filled in, apparently with huge blocks of dressed 
stone, with arches pierced at the bottom for a water-way, 
over which the road went sublimely on. At another place 
it was cut in zigzags out of the side of a precipice five 
hundred feet deep, and in a third it tunnelled right through 
the base of an intervening ridge a space of thirty yards or 
more. 

Here we noticed that the sides of the tunnel were cov- 
ered with quaint sculptures, mostly of mailed figures driv- 
ing in chariots. One, which was exceedingly beautiful, 
represented a whole battle-scene with a convoy of captives 
being marched off in the distance. 

‘‘Well,” said Sir Henry, after inspecting this ancient 
work of art, “ it is very well to call this Solomon’s Road, 
but my humble opinion is that the Egyptians have been 
here before Solomon’s people ever set a foot on it. If that 


90 KING Solomon’s mines. 

isn’t Egyptian handiwork, all I have to say is it is very 
like it.” 

By midday we had advanced sufficiently far down the 
mountain to reach the region where wood was to be met 
with. First we came to scattered bushes which grew more 
and more frequent, till at last we found the road winding 
through a vast grove of silver-trees similar to those which 
are to be seen on the slopes of Table Mountain at Cape 
Town. I had never before met with them in all my wan- 
derings, except at the Cape, and their appearance here as- 
tonished me greatly. 

“ Ah !” said Good, surveying these shining-leaved trees 
with evident enthusiasm, “ here is lots of wood, let us stop 
and cook some dinner ; I have about digested that raw 
meat.” 

Nobody objected to this, so, leaving the road, we made 
our way to a stream which was babbling away not far off, 
and soon had a goodly fire of dry boughs blazing. Cutting 
off some substantial hunks from the fiesh of the inco which 
we had brought with us, we proceeded to toast them on 
the ends of sharp sticks, as one sees the Kaffirs do, and ate 
them with relish. After filling ourselves, we lit our pipes 
and gave ourselves up to enjoyment, which, compared to 
the hardships we had recently undergone, seemed almost 
heavenly. 

The brook, of which the banks were clothed with dense 
masses of a gigantic species of maidenhair fern interspersed 
with feathery tufts of wild asparagus, babbled away mer- 
rily at our side, the soft air murmured through the leaves 
of the silver-trees, doves cooed around, and bright-winged 
birds flashed like living gems from bough to bough. It 
was like Paradise. 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


91 


The magic of the place, combined with the overwhelm- 
ing sense of dangers left behind and of the promised land 
reached at last, seemed to charm us into silence. Sir Henry 
and Umbopa sat conversing in a mixture of broken Eng- 
lish and Kitchen Zulu in a low voice, but earnestly enough, 
and I lay, with my eyes half shut, upon that fragrant bed 
of fern and watched them. Presently I missed Good, and 
looked to see what had become of him. As I did so I ob- 
served him sitting by the bank of the stream, in which he 
had been bathing. He had nothing on but his flannel 
shirt, and, his natural habits of extreme neatness having 
reasserted themselves, was actively employed in making a 
most elaborate toilet. He had washed his gutta-percha 
collar, thoroughly shaken out his trousers, coat, and waist- 
coat, and was now folding them up neatly till he was 
ready to put them on, shaking his head sadly as he did so 
over the numerous rents and tears in them which had nat- 
urally resulted from our frightful journey. Then he took 
his boots, scrubbed them with a handful of fern, and finally 
rubbed them over with a piece of fat which he had care- 
fully saved from the inco meat, till they looked, compara- 
tively speaking, respectable. Having inspected them ju- 
diciously through his eyeglass, he put them on and began 
a fresh operation. From a little bag he carried he pro- 
duced a pocket-comb in which was fixed a tiny looking- 
glass, and in this surveyed himself. Apparently he was 
not satisfied, for he proceeded to do his hair with great 
care. Then came a pause while he again contemplated 
the effect ; still it was not satisfactory. He felt his chin, 
on which was now the accumulated scrub of a ten days’ 
beard. Surely,” thought I, “ he is not going to try and 
shave.” But so it was. Taking the piece of fat with 


^2 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


•which he had greased his boots, he washed it carefully in 
the stream. Then diving again into the bag, he brought 
out a little pocket razor with a guard to it, such as are 
sold to people afraid of cutting themselves, or to those 
about to undertake a sea voyage. Then he vigorously 
scrubbed his face and chin with the fat and began. But 
it was evidently a painful process, for he groaned very 
much over it, and I was convulsed with inward laughter 
as I watched him struggling with that stubbly beard. It 
seemed so very odd that a man should take the trouble to 
shave himself with a piece of fat in such a place and under 
such circumstances. At last he succeeded in getting the 
worst of the scrub off the right side of his face and chin, 
when suddenly I, who was watching, became aware of a 
flash of light that passed just by his head. 

Good sprang up with a profane exclamation (if it had 
not been a safety razor he would certainly have cut his 
throat), and so did I, without the exclamation, and this 
was what I saw. Standing there, not more than twenty 
paces from where I was, and ten from Good, was a ^roup 
of men. They were very tall and copper - colored, and 
some of them wore great plumes of black feathers and 
short cloaks of leopard skins ; this was all I noticed at the 
moment. In front of them stood a youth of about seven- 
teen, his hand still raised and his body bent forward in 
the attitude of a Grecian statue of a spear-thrower. Evi- 
dently the flash of light had been a weapon, and he had 
thrown it. 

As I looked an old, soldier-like looking man stepped 
forward out of the group, and catching the youth by the 
arm said something to him. Then they advanced upon us. 

Sir Henry, Good, and Umbopa had by this time seized 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


93 


their rifles and lifted them threateningly. The party of 
natives still came on. It struck me that they could not 
know what rifles were, or they would not have treated 
them with such contempt. 

‘‘ Put down your guns !” I halloed to the others, seeing 
that our only chance of safety lay in conciliation. They 
obeyed, and, walking to the front, I addressed the elderly 
man who had checked the youth. 

‘‘ Greeting,” I said, in Zulu, not knowing what language 
to use. To my surprise I was understood. 

Greeting,” answered the man, not, indeed, in the same 
tongue, but .in a dialect so closely allied to it that neither 
Umbopa nor myself had any difficulty in understanding it. 
Indeed, as we afterwards found out, the language spoken by 
this people was an old-fashioned form of the Zulu tongue, 
bearing about the same relationship to it that the English 
of Chaucer does to the English of the nineteenth century. 

“ Whence come ye ?” he went on, what are ye ? and 
why are the faces of three of ye white, and the face of the 
fourth as the face of our mother’s sons ?” and he pointed 
to Umbopa. I looked at Umbopa as he said it, and it 
flashed across me that he was right. Umbop* was like 
the faces of the men before me ; so was his great form. 
But I had not time to reflect on this coincidence. 

“We are strangers, and come in peace,” I answered, 
speaking very slow, so that he might understand me, “ and 
this man is our servant,” 

“Ye lie,” he answered, “no strangers can cross the 
mountains where all things die. But what do your lies 
matter ; if ye are strangers then ye must die, for no 
strangers may live in the land of the Kukuanas. It is 
the king’s law. Prepare then to die, O strangers !” 


94 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


I was slightly staggered at this, more especially as I saw 
the handfi of some of the party of men steal down to their 
sides, where hung on each what looked to me like a large 
and heavy knife. 

What does that beggar say ?” asked Good. 

“ He says we are going to be scragged,” I answered, 
grimly. 

‘‘ Oh, Lord,” groaned Good; and, as was his way when 
perplexed, put his hand to his false teeth, dragging the top 
set down and allowing them to fly back to his jaw with a 
snap. It was a most fortunate move, for next second the 
dignified crowd of Kukuanas gave a simultaneous yell of 
horror, and bolted back some yards. 

“ What’s up ?” said I. 

“ It’s his teeth,” whispered Sir Henry, excitedly. “ He 
moved them. Take them out. Good, take them out !” 

He obeyed, slipping the set into the sleeve of his flannel 
shirt. 

In another second curiosity had overcome fear, and the 
men advanced slowly. Apparently they had now forgot- 
ten their amiable intentions of doing for us. 

‘‘ How is it, O strangers,” asked the old man, solemnly, 
“that the teeth of the man” (pointing to Good, who had 
nothing on but a flannel shirt, and had only half finished 
his shaving) “ whose body is clothed, and whose legs are 
bare, who grows hair on one side of his sickly face and not 
on the other, and who has one shining and transparent eye, 
move of themselves, coming away from the jaws and re- 
turning of their own will ?” 

“ Open your mouth,” I said to Good, who promptly 
curled up his lips and grinned at the old gentleman like an 
angry dog, revealing to their astonished gaze two thin red 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


95 


lines of gum as utterly innocent of ivories as a new-born 
elephant. Hs audience gasped. 

“Where are his teeth ?” they shouted; “ with our eyes 
we saw them.” 

Turaing his head slowly and with a gesture of ineffable 
contempt, Good swept his hand across his mouth. Then 
he grinned again, and lo ! there were two rows of lovely 
teeth. 

The young man who had flung the knife threw himself 
down on the grass and gave vent to a prolonged howl of 
terror; and as for the old gentleman, his knees knocked to- 
gether with fear. 

“I see that ye are spirits,” he said, falteringly; “did 
ever man born of woman have hair on one side of his face 
and not on the other, or a round and transparent eye, or 
teeth which moved and melted away and grew again ? 
Pardon us, O my lords.” 

Here was luck indeed, and, needless to say, I jumped at 
the chance. 

“It is granted,” I said, with an imperial smile. “ Nay, 
ye shall know the truth. We come from another world, 
though we are men such as ye ; we come,” I went on, 
“ from the biggest star that shines at night.” 

“ Oh! oh !” groaned the chorus of astonished aborigines. 

“ Yes,” I went on, “ we do, indeed;” and I again smiled 
benignly as I uttered that amazing lie. “We come to 
stay with you a little while, and bless you by our sojourn. 
Ye will see, O friends, that I have prepared myself by 
learning your language.” 

“ It is so, it is so,” said the chorus. 

“ Only, my lord,” put in the old gentleman, “ thou hast 
learned it very badly.” 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


d6 


I cast an indignant glance at him and he quailed. 

‘‘ Now, friends,” I continued, ye might think that after 
so long a journey we should find it in our hearts to avenge 
such a reception, mayhap to strike cold in death the im- 
pious hand that — that, in short — threw a knife at the head 
of him whose teeth come and go.” 

“ Spare him, my lords,” said the old man, in supplica- 
tion ; he is the king’s son, and I am his uncle. If any- 
thing befalls him his blood will be required at my hands.” 

‘‘Yes, that is certainly so,” put in the young man with 
great emphasis. 

“ You may perhaps doubt our power to avenge,” I went 
on, heedless of this by-play. “ Stay, I will show you. 
Here, you dog and slave ” (addressing Umbopa in a savage 
tone), “ give me the magic tube that speaks;” and I tipped 
a wink towards my express rifle. 

Umbopa rose to the occasion, and with something as 
nearly resembling a grin as I have ever seen on his digni- 
fied face, handed me the rifle. 

“It is here, O lord of lords,” he said, with a deep 
obeisance. 

Now, just before I asked for the rifle I had perceived a 
little klipspringer antelope standing on a mass of rock 
about seventy yards away, and determined to risk a shot 
at it. 

“Ye see that buck,” I said, pointing the animal out to 
the party before me. “ Tell me, is it possible for man, 
born of woman, to kill it frofn here with a noise ?” 

“ It is not possible, my lord,” answered the old man. 

“ Yet shall I kill it,” I said, quietly. 

The old man smiled. “ That my lord cannot do,” he 
said. 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


97 


1 raised the rifle, and covered the buck. It was a small 
animal, and one which one might well be excused for miss- 
ing, but I knew that it would not do to miss. 

I drew a deep breath, and slowly pressed on the trigger. 
The buck stood still as stone. 

“ Bang ! thud !” The buck sprang into the air and fell 
on the rock dead as a door-nail. 

A groan of terror burst from the group before us. 

‘‘ If ye want meat,” I remarked, coolly, “ go fetch that 
buck.” 

The old man made a sign and one of his followers de- 
parted, and presently returned bearing the klipspringer. 
I noticed, with satisfaction, that I had hit it fairly behind 
the shoulder. They gathered round the poor creature’s 
body, gazing at the bullet-hole in consternation. 

“Ye see,” I said, “I do not speak empty words.” 

There was no answer. 

“ If ye yet doubt our power,” I went on, “ let one of 
ye go stand upon that rock, that I may make him as this 
buck.” 

None of them seemed at all inclined to take the hint, 
till at last the king’s son spoke. 

“ It is well said. Do thou, my uncle, go stand upon the 
rock. It is but a buck that the magic has killed. Surely 
it cannot kill a man.” 

The old gentleman did not take the suggestion in good 
part. Indeed, he seemed hurt. 

“No ! no !” he ejaculated, hastily; “my old eyes have 
seen enough. These are wizards, indeed. Let us bring 
them to the king. Yet if any should wish a further proof, 
let him stand upon the rock, that the magic tube may speak 
with him.” 

7 


98 


KING SOLOMON'S MINES. 


There was a most general and hasty expression of dis- 
sent. 

“ Let not good magic be wasted on our poor bodies,” 
said one, we are satisfied. All the witchcraft of our 
people cannot show the like of this.” 

“It is so,” remarked the old gentleman, in a tone of 
intense relief; “without any doubt it is so. Listen, chil- 
dren of the stars, children of the shining eye and the mov- 
able teeth, who roar out in thunder and slay from afar. 
I am Infadoos, son of Kafa, once king of the Kukuana 
people. This youth is Scragga.” 

“He nearly scragged me,” murmured Good. 

“Scragga, son of Twala, the great king — Twala, hus- 
band of a thousand wives, chief and lord paramount of 
the Kukuanas, keeper of the great road, terror of his ene- 
mies, student of the Black Arts, leader of an hundred thou- 
sand warriors; Twala the One-eyed, the Black, the Terri- 
ble.” 

“ So,” said I, superciliously, “ lead us then to Twala. 
We do not talk with low people and underlings.” 

“ It is well, my lords, we will lead you, but the way is 
long. We are hunting three days’ journey from the place 
of the king. But let my lords have patience, and we will 
lead them.” 

“It is well,” I said, carelessly, “all time is before us, 
for we do not die. We are ready; lead on. But Infadoos, 
and thou, Scragga, beware ! Play us no tricks, make for 
us no snares, for before your brains of mud have thought 
of them we shall know them and avenge them. The light 
from the transparent eye of him with the bare legs and 
the half -haired face (Good) shall destroy you, and go 
through your land; his vanishing teeth shall fix them- 


KING SOLOMON'S MINES. 


99 


selves fast in you and eat you up, you and your wives and 
children ; the magic tubes shall talk with you loudly, and 
make you as sieves. Beware !” 

This magnificent address did not fail of its effect; in- 
deed, it was hardly needed, so deeply were our friends al- 
ready impressed with our powers. 

The old man made a deep obeisance, and murmured the 
word “ Koom, Koom,” which I afterwards discovered was 
their royal salute, corresponding to the Bayete of the 
Zulus, and, turning, addressed his followers. These at 
once proceeded to lay hold of all our goods and chattels, 
in order to bear them for us, excepting only the guns, 
which they would on no account touch. They even seized 
Good’s clothes, which were, as the reader may remember, 
neatly folded up beside him. 

He at once made a dive for them, and a loud alterca- 
tion ensued. 

“ Let not my lord of the transparent eye and the melt- 
ing teeth touch them,” said the old man. “Surely his 
slaves shall carry the things.” 

“But I want to put ’em on!” roared Good, in nervous 
English. 

Umbopa translated. 

“ Nay, my lord,” put in Infadoos, “ would my lord cover 
up his beautiful white legs (although he was so dark Good 
had a singularly white skin) from the eyes of his ser- 
vants? Have we offended my lord that he should do 
such a thing ?” 

Here I nearly exploded with laughing; and meanwhile, 
one of the men started on with the garments. 

“ Damn it !” roared Good, “ that black villain has got 
my trousers.” 


100 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


“ Look here, Good,” said Sir Henry, “ you have appeared 
in this country in*a certain character, and you must live 
up to it. It will never do for you to put on trousers 
again. Henceforth you must live in a flannel shirt, a pair 
of boots, and an eye-glass.” 

‘‘Yes,” I said, “and with whiskers on one side of your 
face and not on the other. If you change any of these 
things they will think that we are impostors. I am very 
sorry for you, but, seriously, you must do it. If once they 
begin to suspect us, our lives will not be worth a brass 
farthing.” 

“ Do you really think so ?” said Good, gloomily. 

“I do, indeed. Your ‘beautiful white legs’ and your 
eye-glass are now the feature of our party, and, as Sir 
Henry says, you must live up to them. Be thankful that 
you have got your boots on, and that the air is warm.” 

Good sighed, and said no more, but it took him a fort- 
night to get accustomed to his attire. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

WE ENTER KUKUANALAND. 

All that afternoon we travelled on along the magnifi- 
cent roadway, which headed steadily in a northwesterly 
direction. Infadoos and Scragga walked with us, but their 
followers marched about one hundred paces ahead. 

“ Infadoos,” I said at length, ‘‘who made this road ?” 

“ It was made, my lord, of old time, none knew how or 
when, not even the wise woman, Gagool, who has lived for 
generations. We are not old enough to remember its 
making. None can make such roads now, but the king 
lets no grass grow upon it.” 

“ And whose are the writings on the walls of the caves 
through which we have passed on the road ?” I asked, re- 
ferring to the Egyptian-like sculptures we had seen. 

“ My lord, the hands that made the road wrote the won- 
derful writings. We know not who wrote them.” 

“ When did the Kukuana race come into this country ?” 

“ My lord, the race came down here like the breath of 
a storm ten thousand thousand moons ago, from the great 
lands which lie there beyond,” and he pointed to the north. 
“ They could travel no farther, so say the old voices of 
our fathers that have come down to us, the children, and 
so says Gagool, the wise woman, the smeller-out of witches, 
because of the great mountains which ring in the land,” 
and he pointed to the snow-clad peaks. “The country, 
too, was good, so they settled here and grew strong and 


102 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


powerful, and now our numbers are like the sea sand, and 
when Twala the king calls up his regiments their plumes 
cover the plain as far as the eye of man can reach.” 

“And if the land is walled in with mountains, who is 
there for the regiments to fight with ?” 

“Nay, my lord, the country is open there,” and again 
he pointed towards the north, “ and now and again war- 
riors sweep down upon us in clouds from a land we know 
not, and we slay them. It is the third part of the life of 
a man since there was a war. Many thousands died in it, 
but we destroyed those who came to eat us up. So, since 
then there has been no war.” 

“ Your warriors must grow weary of resting on their 
spears.” 

»“My lord, there was one war, just after we destroyed 
the people that came down upon us, but it was a civil war 
— dog eat dog.” 

“ How was that ?” 

“ My lord, the king, my half-brother, had a brother bom 
at the same birth and of the same woman. It is not our 
custom, my lord, to let twins live ; the weakest must al- 
ways die. But the mother of the king hid away the weak- 
est child, which was born the last, for her heart yearned 
over it, and the child is Twala the king. I am his younger 
brother born of another wife.” 

“Well ?” 

“ My lord, Kafa, our father, died when we came to man- 
hood, and my brother Imotu was made king in his place, 
and for a space reigned and had a son by his favorite wife. 
When the babe was three years old, just after the great 
war, during which no man could sow or reap, a famine 
eame upon the land, and the people murmured because of 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


103 


the famine, and looked round like a starved lion for some- 
thing to rend. Then it was that Gagool, the wise and ter- 
rible woman, who does not die, proclaimed to the people, 
saying, ‘The king Imotu is no king.’ And at the time 
Imotu was sick with a wound, and lay in his hut not able 
to move. 

“ Then Gagool went into a hut and led out Twala, my 
half-brother, and the twin brother of the king, whom she 
had hidden since he was born among the caves and rocks, 
and, stripping the ‘ moocha’ (waist-cloth) off his loins, 
showed the people of the Kukuanas the mark of the sacred 
snake coiled round his waist, wherewith the eldest son of 
the king is marked at birth, and cried out loud, ‘ Behold, 
your king, whom I have saved for you even to this ^ay !’ 
And the people, being mad with hunger and altogether be- 
reft of reason and the knowledge of truth, cried out, ‘ The 
king! The king /’ but I knew that it was not so, for Imo- 
tu, my brother, was the elder of the twins, and was the 
lawful king. And just as the tumult was at its height 
Imotu the king, though he was very sick, came crawling 
from his hut holding his wife by the hand, and followed 
by his little son Ignosi (the lightning). 

“ ‘ What is this noise ?’ he asked ; ‘ Why cry ye The 
king ! The king P 

“ Then Twala, his own brother, born of the same woman 
and in the same hour, ran to him, and, taking him by the 
hair, stabbed him through the heart with his knife. And 
the people, being fickle, and ever ready to worship the 
rising sun, clapped their hands and cried, ‘ Tioala is king f 
Now we know that Twala is king !’ ” 

“And what became of his wife and her son Ignosi? 
Did Twala kill them too ?” 


104 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


“ Nay, my lord. When she saw that her lord was dead 
she seized the child with a cry, and ran away. Two days 
afterwards she came to a kraal very hungry, and none 
would give her milk or food, now that her lord the king 
was dead, for all men hate the unfortunate. But at night- 
fall a little child, a girl, crept out and brought her to eat, 
and she blessed the child, and went on towards the moun- 
tains with her boy before the sun rose again, where she 
must have perished, for none have seen her since, nor the 
child Ignosi.” 

“ Then if this child Ignosi had lived, he would be the 
true king of the Kukuana people ?” 

“ That is so, my lord ; the sacred snake is round his 
middle. If he lives he is the king ; but alas ! he is long 
dead.” 

“ See, my lord,” and he pointed to a vast collection of 
huts surrounded with a fence, which was in its turn sur- 
rounded by a great ditch, that lay on the plain beneath us. 
“ That is the kraal where the wife of Imotu was last seen 
with the child Ignosi. It is there that we shall sleep to- 
night, if, indeed,” he added, doubtfully, my lords sleep at 
all upon this earth.” 

“ When we are among the Kukuanas, my good friend 
Infadoos, we do as the Kukuanas do,” I said, majestically, 
and I turned round suddenly to address Good, who was 
tramping along sullenly behind, his mind fully occupied 
with unsatisfactory attempts to keep his flannel shirt from 
flapping up in the evening breeze, and to my astonishment 
butted into Umbopa, who was walking along immediately 
behind me, and had very evidently been listening with the 
greatest interest to my conversation with Infadoos. The 
expression on his face was most curious, and gave the 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


105 


idea of a man who was struggling with partial success 
to bring something long ago forgotten back into his 
mind. 

All this while we had been pressing on at a good rate 
down towards the undulating plain beneath. The moun- 
tains we had crossed now loomed high above us, and 
Sheba’s breasts were modestly veiled in diaphanous 
wreaths of mist. As we went on the country grew more 
and more lovely. The vegetation was luxuriant without 
being tropical ; the sun was bright and warm, but not 
burning, and a gracious breeze blew softly along the odor- 
ous slopes of the mountains. And, indeed, this new land 
was little less than an earthly paradise ; in beauty, in nat- 
ural wealth, and in climate I have never seen its like. 
The Transvaal is a fine country, but it is nothing to Ku- 
kuanaland. 

So soon as we started, Infadoos had despatched a runner 
on to warn the people of the kraal, which, by the way, was 
in his military command, of our arrival. This man had 
departed at an extraordinary speed, which Infadoos had in- 
formed me he would keep up all the way, as running was 
an exercise much practised among his people. 

The result of this message now became apparent. When 
we got within two miles of the kraal we could see that 
company after company of men was issuing from its gates 
and marching towards us. 

Sir Henry laid his hand upon my arm, and remarked that 
it looked as though we were going to meet with a warm 
reception. Something in his tone attracted Infadoos’s at- 
tention. 

‘‘ Let not my lords be afraid,” he said, hastily, ‘‘ for in 
my breast there dwells no guile. This regiment is one 


106 KING Solomon’s mines. 

under my command, and comes out by my orders to greet 
you.''’ 

I nodded easily, though I was not quite easy in my mind. 

About half a mile from the gates of the kraal was a long 
stretch of rising ground sloping gently upward from the 
road, and on this the companies formed. It was a splem 
did sight to see them, each company about three hundred 
strong, charging swiftly up the slope, with flashing spears 
and waving plumes, and taking their appointed place. By 
the time we came to the slope twelve such companies, or 
in all three thousand six hundred men, had passed out and 
taken up their positions along the road. 

Presently we came to the flrst company, and were able 
to gaze in astonishment on the most magnificent set of 
men I have ever seen. They were all men of mature age, 
mostly veterans of about forty, and not one of them was 
under six feet in height, while many were six feet three 
or four. They wore upon their heads heavy black plumes 
of Sacaboola feathers, like those which adorned our guides. 
Round their waists and also beneath the right knee were 
bound circlets of white ox-tails, and in their left hands 
were round shields about twenty inches across. These 
shields were very curious. The framework consisted of 
an iron plate beaten out thin, over which was stretched 
milk-white ox-hide. The weapons that each man bore 
were simple, but most effective, consisting of a short and 
very heavy two-edged spear with a wooden shaft, the 
blade being about six inches across at the widest part. 
These spears were not used for throwing, but, like the 
Zulu ‘‘bangwan,” or stabbing assegai, were for close 
quarters only, when the wound inflicted by them was 
terrible. In addition to these bangwans each man also 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


107 


carried three large and heavy knives, each knife weighing 
about two pounds. One knife was fixed in the ox-tail 
girdle, and the other two at the back of the round shield. 
These knives, which are called tollas ” by the Kukuanas, 
take the place of the throwing assegai of the Zulus. A 
Kukuana warrior can throw them with great accuracy at 
a distance of fifty yards, and it is their custom on charg- 
ing to hurl a volley of them at the enemy as they come to 
close quarters. 

Each company stood like a collection of bronze statues 
till we were opposite to it, when, at a signal given by its 
commanding officer, who, distinguished by a leopard-skin 
cloak, stood some paces in front, every spear was raised 
into the air, and from three hundred throats sprang forth 
with a sudden roar the royal salute of KoomV'* Then, 
when we had passed, the company formed behind us 
and followed us towards the kraal, till at last the whole 
regiment of the “Grays” (so called from their white 
shields), the crack corps of the Kukuana people, was 
marching behind us with a tread that shook the ground. 

At length, branching off from Solomon’s Great Road, 
we came to the wide fosse surrounding the kraal, which 
was at least a mile round and fenced with a strong pali- 
sade of piles formed of the trunks of trees. At the gate- 
way this fosse was spanned by a primitive drawbridge 
which was let down by the guard to allow us to pass in. 
The kraal was exceedingly well laid out. Through the 
centre ran a wide pathway intersected at right angles by 
other pathways so arranged as to cut the huts into square 
blocks, each block being the quarters of a company. The 
huts were dome-shaped, and built, like those of the Zulus, 
of a framework of wattle beautifully thatched with grass ; 


108 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


but, unlike the Zulu huts, they had doorways through 
which one could walk. Also they were much larger, and 
surrounded with a veranda about six feet wide, beautiful- 
ly paved with powdered lime trodden hard. All along 
each side of the wide pathway that pierced the kraal were 
ranged hundreds of women, brought out by curiosity to 
look at us. These women are, for a native race, exceed- 
ingly handsome. They are tall and graceful, and their 
figures are wonderfully fine. The hair, though short, is 
rather curly than woolly, the features are frequently 
aquiline, and the lips are not unpleasantly thick, as is the 
case in most African races. But what struck us most 
was their exceeding quiet, dignified air. They were as 
well-bred in their way as the hahituh of a fashionable 
drawing-room, and in this respect differ from Zulu women, 
and their cousins, the Masai, who inhabit the district be- 
hind Zanzibar, Their curiosity had brought them out to 
see us, but they allowed no rude expression of wonder or 
savage criticism to pass their lips as we trudged wearily 
in front of them. Not even when old Infadoos with a 
surreptitious motion of the hand pointed out the crowning 
wonder of poor Good’s “beautiful white legs,” did they 
allow the feeling of intense admiration which evidently 
mastered theii- minds to find expression. They fixed their 
dark eyes upon their snowy loveliness (Good’s skin is ex- 
ceedingly white), and that was all. But this was quite 
enough for Good, who is modest by nature. 

When we got to the centre of the kraal Infadoos halted 
at the door of a large hut, which was surrounded at a dis- 
tance by a circle of smaller ones. 

“Enter, sons of the stars,” he said, in a magniloquent 
voice, “ and deign to rest awhile in our humble habita- 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 109 

tions. A little food shall be brought to you, so that ye 
shall have no need to draw your belts tight from hunger ; 
some honey and some milk, and an ox or two, and a few 
sheep ; not much, my lords, but still a little food.” 

“It is good,” said I, “Infadoos, we are weary with 
travelling through realms of air ; now let us rest.” 

Accordingly we entered into the hut, which we found 
amply prepared for our comfort. Couches of tanned skins 
were spread for us to rest on, and water was placed for us' 
to wash in. 

Presently we heard a shouting outside, and, stepping to 
the door, saw a line of damsels bearing milk and roasted 
mealies and honey in a pot. Behind these were some 
youths driving a fat young ox. We received the gifts, 
and then one of the young men took the knife from his 
girdle and dexterously cut the ox’s throat. In ten minutes 
it was dead, skinned, and cut up. The best of the meat 
was then cut off for us, and the rest I, in the name of our 
party, presented to the warriors round us, who took it off 
and distributed the “white men’s gift.” 

Umbopa set to work, with the assistance of an extreme- 
ly prepossessing young woman, to boil our portion in a 
large earthenware pot over a fire which was built outside 
the huty and when it was nearly ready we sent a message 
to Infadoos, and asked him, and Scragga the king’s son, to 
join us. 

Presently they came, and, sitting down upon little stools, 
of which there were several about the hut (for the Kuku- 
anas do not in general squat upon their haunches like the 
Zulus), helped us to get through our dinner. The old 
gentleman was most affable and polite, but it struck us 
that the young one regarded us with suspicion. He had. 


110 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


together with the rest of the party, been overawed by our 
white appearance and by our magic properties ; but it 
seemed to me that on discovering that we ate, drank, and 
slept like other mortals, his awe was beginning to wear off 
and be replaced by a sullen suspicion, which made us feel 
rather uncomfortable. 

In the course of our meal Sir Henry suggested to me 
that it might be well to try and discover if our hosts knew 
anything of his brother’s fate, or if they had ever seen or 
heard of him ; but, on the whole, I thought that it would 
be wiser to say nothing of the matter at that time. 

After supper we filled our pipes and lit them; a pro- 
ceeding which filled Infadoos and Scragga with astonish- 
ment. The Kukuanas were evidently unacquainted with 
the divine uses of tobacco-smoke. The herb was grown 
among them extensively ; but, like the Zulus, they only 
used it for snuff, and quite failed to identify it in its new 
form. 

Presently I asked Infadoos when we were to proceed 
on our journey, and was delighted to learn that prepara- 
tions had been made for us to leave on the following 
morning, messengers having already left to inform Twala, 
the king, of our coming. It appeared that Twala was at 
his principal place, known as Loo, making ready for the 
great annual feast which was held in the first week of 
June. At this gathering all the regiments, with the ex- 
ception of certain detachments left behind for garrison 
purposes, were brought up and paraded before the king, 
and the great annual witch-hunt, of which more by and 
by, was held. 

We were to start at dawn ; and Infadoos, who was to 
accompany us, expected that we should, unless we were 


KING Solomon's mines. 


Ill 


detained by accident or by swollen rivers, reach Loo on 
the night of the second day. 

When they had given us this information our visitors 
bade us good-night ; and, having arranged to watch turn 
and turn about, three of us flung ourselves down and slept 
the sweet sleep of the weary, while the fourth sat up on 
the lookout for possible treachery. 


CHAPTER IX. 

TWALA, THE KING. 

It will not be necessary for me to detail at length the 
incidents of our journey to Loo. It took two good days’ 
travelling along Solomon’s Great Road, which pursued its 
even course right into the heart of Kukuanaland. Suffice 
it to say that as we went the country seemed to grow richer 
and richer, and the kraals, with their wide surrounding belts 
of cultivation, more and more numerous. They were all 
built upon the same principles as the first one we had 
reached, and were guarded by ample garrisons of troops. 
Indeed, in Kukuanaland, as among the Germans, the Zulus, 
and the Masai, every able-bodied man is a soldier, so that 
the whole force of the nation is available for its wars, of- 
fensive or defensive. As we travelled along we were over- 
taken by thousands of warriors hurrying up to Loo to be 
present at the great annual review and festival, and a 
grander series of troops I never saw. At sunset on the 
second day we stopped to rest awhile upon the summit of 
some heights over which the road ran, and there, on a 
beautiful and fertile plain before us, was Loo itself. For 
a native town it was an enormous place, quite five miles 
round, I should say, with outlying kraals jutting out from 
it, which served on grand occasions as cantonments for 
the regiments, and a curious horseshoe-shaped hill, with 
which we were destined to become better acquainted, about 
two miles to the north. It was beautifully situated, and 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


113 


through the centre of the kraal, dividing it into two por- 
tions, ran a river, which appeared to he bridged at several 
places, the same, perhaps, that we had seen from the slopes 
of Sheba’s breasts. Sixty or seventy miles away three 
great snow-capped mountains, placed like the points of a 
triangle, started up out of the level plain. The conforma- 
tion of these mountains was unlike that of Sheba’s breasts, 
being sheer and precipitous, instead of smooth and rounded. 

Infadoos saw us looking at them and volunteered a re- 
mark: 

“ The road ends there,” he said, pointing to the moun- 
tains, known among the Kukuanas as the ‘‘ Three Witches.” 

“ Why does it end ?” I asked. 

“ Who knows ?” he answered, with a shrug; ‘‘ the moun- 
tains are full of caves, and there is a great pit between 
them. It is there that the wise men of old time used to 
go to get whatever it was they came to this country for, 
and it is there now that our kings are buried in the Place 
of Death.” 

“ What was it they came for ?” I asked, eagerly. 

“ Nay, I know not. My lords who come from the stars 
should know,” he answered, with a quick look. Evidently 
he knew more than he chose to say. 

Yes,” I went on, ‘^you are right; in the stars we know 
many things. I have heard, for instance, that the wise 
men of old came to those mountains to get bright stones, 
pretty playthings, and yellow iron.” 

‘‘My lord is wise,” he answered, coldly; “I am but a 
child and cannot talk with my lord on such things. My 
lord must speak with Gagool the old, at the king’&place, 
who is wise even as my lord,” and he turned away^k^' 

As soon as he was gone I turned to the others and' 
8 


114 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


pointed out the mountains. There are Solomon’s dia- 
mond mines,” I said. 

Umhopa was standing with them, apparently plunged 
in one of the fits of abstraction which were common to 
him, and caught my words. 

‘‘Yes, Macumazahn,” he put in, in Zulu, “the diamonds 
are surely there, and you shall have them, since you white 
men are so fond of toys and money.” 

“ How dost thou know that, Umhopa ?” I asked, sharply, 
for I did not like his mysterious ways. 

He laughed ; “ I dreamed it in the night, white men,” 
and then he too turned upon his heel and went. 

“How what,” said Sir Henry, “is our black friend at? 
He knows more than he chooses to say, that is clear. By 
the way, Quatermain, has he heard anything of — of my 
brother ?” 

“ Nothing; he has asked every one he has got friendly 
with, but they all declare no white man has ever been seen 
in the country before.” 

“ Do you suppose he ever got here at all ?” suggested 
Good; “we have only reached the place by a miracle; is 
it likely he could have reached it at all without the map ?” 

“ I don’t know,” said Sir Henry, gloomily, “ but some- 
how I think that I shall find him.” 

Slowly the sun sank, and then suddenly darkness rushed 
down on the land like a tangible thing. There was no 
breathing-place between the day and the night, no soft 
transformation scene, for in these latitudes twilight does 
not exist. The change from day to night is as quick and 
as absolute as the change from life to death. The sun 
sank and the world was wreathed in shadows. But not 
for long, for see, in the east there is a glow, then a bent 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


115 


edge of silver light, and at last the full bow of the cres- 
cent moon peeps above the plain and shoots its gleaming 
arrows far and wide, tilling the earth with a faint reful- 
gence, as the glow of a good man’s deeds shines for a while 
upon his little world after his sun has set, lighting the 
faint-hearted travellers who follow on towards a fuller 
dawn. 

We stood and watched the lovely sight, while the stars 
grew pale before this chastened majesty, and felt our 
hearts lifted up in the presence of a beauty we could not 
realize, much less describe. Mine has been a rough life, 
my reader, but there are a few things I am thankful to 
have lived for, and one of them is to have seen that moon 
rise over Kukuanaland. Presently our meditations were 
broken in upon by our polite friend Infadoos. 

‘‘ If my lords are ready we will journey on to Loo, where 
a hut is made ready for my lords to-night. The moon is 
now bright, so that we shall not fall on the way.” 

We assented, and in an hour’s time were at the outskirts 
of the town, of which the extent, mapped out as it was 
by thousands of camp-fires, appeared absolutely endless. 
Indeed, Good, who was always fond of a bad joke, christ- 
ened it ‘‘ Unlimited Loo.” Presently we came to a moat 
with a drawbridge, where we were met by the rattling of 
arms and the hoarse challenge of a sentry. Infadoos gave 
some password that I could not catch, which was met with 
a salute, and we passed on through the central street oifi 
the great grass city. After nearly half an hour’s tramp 
past endless lines of huts, Infadoos at last halted at the 
gate of a little group of huts w;hich surrounded a small 
courtyard of powdered limestone, and informed us that 
these were to be our “poor” quarters. 


116 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


We entered, and found that a hut had been assigned to 
each of us. These huts were superior to any which we 
had yet seen, and in each was a most comfortable bed 
made of tanned skins spread upon mattresses of aromatic 
grass. Food, too, was ready for us, and as soon as we had 
washed ourselves with water,which stood ready in earthen- 
ware jars, some young women of handsome appearance 
brought us roasted meat and mealie cobs daintily served 
on wooden platters, and presented it to us with deep obei- 
sances. 

We ate and drank, and then, the beds having by our re- 
quest been all moved into one hut, a precaution at which 
the amiable young ladies smiled, we flung ourselves down 
to sleep, thoroughly wearied out with our long journey. 

When we woke, it was to find that the sun was high in 
the heavens, and that the female attendants, who did not 
seem to be troubled by any false shame, were already 
standing inside the hut, having been ordered to attend and 
help us to “ make ready.” 

‘‘Make ready, indeed,” growled Good; “when one has 
only a flannel shirt and a pair of boots, that does not take 
long. I wish you would ask them for my trousers.” 

I asked accordingly, but was informed that those sacred 
relics had already been taken to the king, who would see 
us in the forenoon. 

Having, somewhat to their astonishment and disappoint- 
ment, requested the young ladies to step outside, we pro- 
ceeded to make the best toilet that the circumstances 
admitted of. Good even went the length of again shaving 
the right side of his face; the left, on which now appeared 
a very fair crop of whiskers, we impressed upon him he 
must on no account touch. As for ourselves, w^e were 


KING SOLOMON^S MINES. 


117 


contented with a good wash and combing our hair. Sir 
Henry’s yellow locks were now almost down to his shoul- 
ders, and he looked more like an ancient Dane than ever, 
while my grizzled scrub was fully an inch long, instead 
of half an inch, which in a general way I considered my 
maximum length. 

By the time that we had eaten our breakfast and smoked 
a pipe, a message was brought to us by no less a person- 
age than Infadoos himself that Twala, the king, was ready 
to see us, if we would be pleased to come. 

We remarked in reply that we should prefer to wait 
until the sun was a little higher, we were yet weary with 
our journey, etc. It is always well, when dealing with un- 
civilized people, not to be in too great a hurry. They are 
apt to mistake politeness for awe or servility. So, although 
we were^quite as anxious to see Twala as Twala could bo 
to see us, we sat down and waited for an hour, employing 
the interval in preparing such presents as our slender stock 
of goods permitted — namely, the Winchester rifle which 
had been used by poor Ventvogel, and some beads. The 
rifle and ammunition we determined to present to his royal 
highness, and the beads were for his wives and courtiers. 
We had already given a few to Infadoos and Scragga, and 
found that they were delighted with them, never having 
seen anything like them before. At length we declared 
that we were ready, and, guided by Infadoos, started off 
to the levee, Umbopa carrying the rifle and beads. 

After walking a few hundred yards we came to an en- 
closure, something like that which surrounded the huts 
that had been allotted to us, only fifty times as big. It 
could not have been less than six or seven acres in extent. 
All round the outside fence was a row of huts, which were 


118 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


the habitations of the king’s wives. Exactly opposite the 
gateway, on the farther side of the open space, was a very 
large hut, which stood by itself, in which his majesty re- 
sided. All the rest was open ground; that is to say, it 
would have been open had it not been filled by company 
after company of warriors, who were mustered there to 
the number of seven or eight thousand. These men stood 
still as statues as we advanced through them, and it wcmld 
be impossible to give an idea of the grandeur of the spec- 
tacle which they presented, in their waving plumes, their 
glancing spears, and iron-backed ox-hide shields. 

The space in front of the large hut was empty, but be- 
fore it were placed several stools. On three of these, at a 
sign from Infadoos, we seated ourselves, TJmbopa standing 
behind us. As for Infadoos, he took up a position by the 
door of the hut. So we waited for ten minutes or more in 
the midst of a dead silence, but conscious that we were the 
object of the concentrated gaze of some eight thousand 
pairs of eyes. It was a somewhat trying ordeal, but we 
carried it off as best we could. At length the door of the 
hut opened, and a gigantic figure, with a splendid tiger- 
skin karross flung over its shoulders, stepped out, followed 
by the boy Scragga, and what appeared to us to be a with- 
ered-up monkey wrapped in a fur cloak. The figure seated 
itself upon a stool, Scragga took his stand behind it, and 
the withered-up monkey crept on all fours into the shade 
of the hut and squatted down. 

Still there was silence. 

Then the gigantic figure slipped off the karross and stood 
up before us, a truly alarming spectacle. It was that of an 
enormous man with the most entirely repulsive countenance 
we had ever beheld. The lips were as thick as a negro’s^ 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


119 


the nose was flat, it had but one gleaming black eye (for 
the other was represented by a hollow in the face), and its 
whole expression was cruel and sensual to a degree. From 
the large head rose a magnificent plume of white ostrich 
feathers, the body was clad in a shirt of shining chain 
armor, while round the waist and right knee was the usual 
garnish of white ox-tails. In the right hand was a huge 
spear. Round the neck was a thick torque of gold, and 
bound on to the forehead was a single and enormous uncut 
diamond. 

Still there was silence; but not for long. Presently the 
figure, whom we rightly guessed to be the king, raised the 
great spear in his hand. Instantly eight thousand spears 
were raised in answer, and from eight thousand throats 
rang out the royal salute of “ Koom /” Three times this 
was repeated, and each time the earth shook with the noise, 
that can only be compared to the deepest notes of thunder. 

“ Be humble, O people,” piped out a thin voice which 
seemed to come from the monkey in the shade; “ it is the 
king.” 

“ It is the hing^'^ boomed out eight thousand throats, in 
answer. Be humble^ O people ; it is the Jcing.^'^ 

Then there was silence again — dead silence. Presently, 
however, it was broken. A soldier on our left dropped 
his shield, which fell with a clatter on the limestone floor- 
ing. 

Twala turned his one cold eye in the direction of the 
noise. 

‘‘ Come hither, thou,” he said, in a voice of thunder. 

A fine young man stepped out of the ranks, and stood 
before him. 

“It was thy shield that fell, thou awkward dog. Wilt 


120 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


thou make me a reproach in the eyes of strangers from the 
stars ? What hast thou to say 

And then we saw the poor fellow turn pale under his 
dusky skin. 

“ It was by chance, O calf of the black cow,” he mur- 
mured. 

‘‘ Then it is a chance for which thou must pay. Thou 
hast made me foolish; prepare for death.” 

“ I am the king’s ox,” was the low answer. 

Scragga,” roared the king, “ let me see how thou canst 
use thy spear. Kill me this awkward dog.” 

Scragga stepped forward with an ill-favored grin, and 
lifted his spear. The poor victim covered his eyes with 
his hand and stood still. As for us, we were petrified with 
horror. 

“ Once, twice,” he waved the spear and then struck, ah, 
God ! right home — the spear stood out a foot behind the 
soldier’s back. He flung up his hands and dropped dead. 
From the multitude around rose something like a murmur, 
it rolled round and round, and died away. The tragedy 
was finished; there lay the corpse, and we had not yet real- 
ized that it had been enacted. Sir Henry sprang up and 
swore a great oath, then, overpowered by the sense of 
silence, sat down again. 

“ The thrust was a good one,” said the king; ‘‘ take him 
away.” 

Four men stepped out of the ranks, and, lifting the body 
of the murdered man, carried it away. 

“ Cover up the blood-stains, cover them up,” piped out 
the thin voice from the monkey-like figure ; “ the king’s 
word is spoken, the king’s doom is done.” 

Thereupon a girl came forward from behind the hut, 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


121 


bearing a jar filled with powdered lime, which she scat- 
tered over the red mark, blotting it from sight. 

Sir Henry meanwhile was boiling with rage at what had 
happened ; indeed, it was with difficulty that we could 
keep him still. 

“Sit down, for Heaven’s sake,” I whispered; “our lives 
depend on it.” 

He yielded and remained quiet. 

Twala sat still until the traces of the tragedy had been 
removed, then he addressed us. 

“ White people,” he said, “ who come hither, whence I 
know not, and why I know not, greeting.” 

“ Greeting, Twala, king of the Kukuanas,” I answered. 

“ White people, whence come ye, and what seek ye ?” 

“We come from the stars, ask us not how. We come 
to see this land.” 

“Ye come from far to see a little thing. And that man 
with ye,” pointing to Umbopa, “does he too come from 
the stars ?” 

“Even so; there are people of thy color in the heavens 
above; but ask not of matters too high for thee, Twala, 
the king.” 

“Ye speak with a loud voice, people of the stars,” Twala 
answered, in a tone which I scarcely liked. “ Remember 
that the stars are far off, and ye are here. How if I make 
ye as him whom they bare away ?” 

I laughed out loud, though there was little laughter in 
my heart. 

“O king,” I said, “be careful; walk warily over hot 
stones, lest thou shouldst bum thy feet; hold the spear 
by the handle, lest thou shouldst cut thy hands. Touch 
but one hair of our heads, and destruction shall come upon 


122 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


thee. What, have not these,” pointing to Infadoos and 
Scragga (who, young villain that he was, was employed 
in cleaning the blood of the soldier off his spear), ‘‘told 
thee what manner of men we are ? Hast thou ever seen 
the like of us ?” and I pointed to Good, feeling quite sure 
that he had never seen anybody before who looked in the 
least like him as he then appeared. 

“ It is true, I have not,” said the king. 

“Have they not told thee how we strike with death 
from afar ?” I went on. 

“ They have told me, but I believe them not. Let me 
see you kill. Kill me a man among those who stand yon- 
der ” — and he pointed to the opposite side of the kraal — 
“ and I will believe.” 

“Nay,” I answered; “we shed no blood of man except 
in just punishment; but if thou wilt see, bid thy servants 
drive in an ox through the kraal gates, and before he has 
run twenty paces I will strike him dead.’' 

“ Nay,” laughed the king, “ kill me a man, and I will 
believe.” 

“ Good, O king, so be it,” I answered, coolly; “ do thou 
walk across the open space, and before thy feet reach the 
gate thou shalt be dead; or, if thou wilt not, send thy son 
Scragga ” (whom at that moment it would have given me 
much pleasure to shoot). 

On hearing this suggestion Scragga gave a sort of howl, 
and bolted into the hut. 

Twala frowned majestically; the suggestion did not 
please him. 

“ Let a young ox be driven in,” he said. 

Two men at once departed, running swiftly. 

“ Now, Sir Henry,” said I, “ do you shoot. I want to 


KING Solomon’s mines. 123 

show this ruffian that I am not the only magician of the 
party.” 

Sir Henry accordingly took the express,” and made 
ready. 

“ I hope I shall make a good shot,” he groaned. 

“You must,” I answered. “If you miss with the first 
barrel, let him have the second. Sight for one hundred 
and fifty yards, and wait till the beast turns broadside 
on.” 

Then came a pause, till presently we caught sight of an 
ox running straight for the kraal gate. It came on through 
the gate, and then, catching sight of the vast concourse of 
people, stopped stupidly, turned round, and bellowed. 

“Now’s your time,” I whispered. 

Up went the rifle. 

Bang ! thud ! and the ox was kicking on his back, shot 
in the ribs. The semi-hollow bullet had done its work 
well, and a sigh of astonishment went up from the assem- 
bled thousands. 

I turned coolly round — • 

“ Have I lied, O king?” 

“ Nay, white man, it is a truth,” was the somewhat 
awed answer. 

“ Listen, Twala,” I went on. “Thou hast seen. Now 
know we come in peace, not in war. See here ” (and I held 
up the Winchester repeater) ; “ here is a hollow staff that 
shall enable you to kill even as we kill, only this charm I 
lay upon it, thou shalt kill no man with it. If thou liftest 
it against a man, it shall kill thee. Stay, I will show thee. 
Bid a man step forty paces and place the shaft of a spear 
in the ground so that the flat blade looks towards us.” 

In a few seconds it was done. 


124 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


“ Now, see, I will break the spear.” 

Taking a careful sight, I fired. The bullet struck the flat 
of the spear and broke the blade into fragments. 

Again the sigh of astonishment went up. 

‘‘Now, Twala” (handing him the rifle), “this magic 
tube we give to thee, and by and by I will show thee how 
to use it; but beware how thou usest the magic of the stars 
against a man of earth,” and I handed him the rifle. He 
took it very gingerly, and laid it down at his feet. As he 
did so I observed the wizened, monkey-like figure creeping 
up from the shadow of the hut. It crept on all fours, but 
when it reached the place where the king sat it rose upon 
its feet, and, throwing the furry covering off its face, re-^ 
vealed a most extraordinary and weird countenance. It 
was (apparently) that of a woman of great age, so shrunken 
that in size it was no larger than that of a year-old child, 
and was made up of a collection of deep, yellow wrinkles. 
Set in the wrinkles was a sunken slit that represented the 
mouth, beneath which the chin curved outward to a point. 
There was no nose to speak of ; indeed, the whole coun- 
tenance might have been taken for that of a sun-dried 
corpse had it not been for a pair of large black eyes, still 
full of fire and intelligence, which gleamed and played 
under the snow-white eyebrows and the projecting parch- 
ment-colored skull, like jewels in a charnel-house. As for 
the skull itself, it was perfectly bare, arid yellow in hue, 
while its wrinkled scalp moved and contracted like the 
hood of a cobra. 

The figure to whom this fearful countenance, which 
caused a shiver of fear to pass through us as we gazed on ' 
it, belonged stoo(rstill for a moment, and then suddenly 
projected a skinny claw armed with nails nearly an inch 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


125 


long, and laid it on the shoulder of Twala, the king, and 
began to speak in a thin, piercing voice: 

“ Listen, O king ! Listen, O people ! Listen, O moun- 
tains and plains and rivers, home of the Kukuana race! 
Listen, O skies and sun, O rain and storm and mist ! 
Listen, all things that live and must die ! Listen, all dead 
things that must live again — again to die ! Listen, the 
spirit of life is in me, and I prophesy. I prophesy ! I 
prophesy 1” 

The words died away in a faint wail, and terror seemed 
to seize upon the hearts of all who heard them, including 
ourselves. The old woman was very terrible. 

^'‘Blood! blood! blood! rivers of blood; blood every- 
where. I see it, I smell it, I taste it — it is salt; it runs 
red upon the ground, it rains down from the skies. 

Footsteps ! footsteps ! footsteps ! the tread of the white 
man coming from afar. It shakes the earth; the earth 
trembles before her master, 

“ Blood is good, the red blood is bright ; there is no 
smell like the smell of new-shed blood. The lions shall 
lap it and roar, the vultures shall wash their wings in it 
and shriek in joy. 

“I am old ! I am old ! I have seen much blood; but I 
shall see more ere I die, and be merry. How old am I, 
think ye ? Your fathers knew me, and their fathers knew 
me, and their fathers’ fathers. I have seen the white man, 
and know his desires. I am old, but the mountains are 
older than 1. Who made the great road, tell me? Who 
wrote in pictures on the rocks, t^ll me? Who reared 
up the three silent ones yonder, who gaze across the pit, 
tell me ?” (And she pointed towards the three precipitous 
mountains we had noticed on the previous night.) 


126 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


‘‘Ye know not, but I know. It was a white people who 
were before ye were, who shall be when ye are not, who 
shall eat ye up and destroy ye. Yea ! yea ! yea ! 

“ And what came they for, the white ones, the terrible 
ones, the skilled in magic and all learning, the strong, the 
unswerving? What is that bright stone upon thy fore- 
head, O king? Whose hands made the iron garments 
upon thy breast, O king ? Ye know not, but I know. I 
the old one, I the wise one, I the Isanusi !” (witch doc- 
tress.) 

Then she turned her bald, vulture head towards us. 

“ What seek ye, white men of the stars? Ah, yes, of the 
stars ! Do ye seek a lost one ? Ye shall not find him 
here. He is not here. Never for ages upon ages has a 
white foot pressed this land ; never but once, and he left 
it but to die. Ye come for bright stones ; I know it — I 
know it; ye shall find them when the blood is dry; but 
shall ye return whence ye came, or shall ye stop with me ? 
Ha ! ha ! ha ! 

“ And thou — thou with the dark skin and the proud bear- 
ing” (pointing her skinny finger at Umbopa), “who art 
thou^ and what seekest thouf Not stones that shine; not 
yellow metal that gleams; that thou leavest to ‘white men 
from the stars.’ Methinks I know thee ; methinks I can 
smell the smell of the blood in thy veins. Strip off the 
girdle—” 

Here the features of this extraordinary creature became 
convulsed, and she fell to the ground foaming in an epi- 
leptic fit and was carried off into the hut. 

The king rose up trembling, and waved his hand. In- 
stantly the regiments began to file off, and in ten minutes, 
save for ourselves, the king, and a few attendants, the great 
space was left clear. 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


127 


“ White people,” he said, “ it passes in my mind to kill 
ye. Gagool has spoken strange words. What say ye ?” 

I laughed. “Be careful, O king, we are not easy to 
slay. Thou hast seen the fate of the ox; wouldst thou be 
as the ox?” 

The king frowned. “ It is not well to threaten a king.” 

“We threaten not, we speak what is true. Try to kill 
us, O king, and learn.” 

The great man put his hand to his forehead. 

“ Go in peace,” he said, at length. “ To-night is the 
great dance. Ye shall see it. Fear nOt that I shall set a 
snare for ye. To-morrow I shall think.” 

“It is well, O king,” I answered, unconcernedly, and 
then, accompanied by Infadoos, we rose and went back to 
our kraal. 


CHAPTER X. 


THE WITCH-HUNT. 

On reaching our hut, I motioned to Infadoos to enter 
with us. 

“Now, Infadoos,” I said, “ we would speak with thee.” 

“ Let my lords say on.” 

“ It seems to us, Infadoos, that Twala, the king, is a 
cruel man.” 

“ It is so, my lords. Alas ! the land cries out with his 
cruelties. To-night ye will see. It is the great witch- 
hunt, and many will be smelt out as wizards and slain. 
No man’s life is safe. If the king covet’s a man’s cattle 
or a man’s life, or if he fears a man that he should excite 
a rebellion against him, then Gagool, whom ye saw, or 
some of the witch-finding women whom she has taught, 
will smell that man out as a wizard, and he will be killed. 
Many will die before the moon grows pale to-night. It 
is ever so. Perhaps I too shall be killed. As yet I have 
been spared, because I am skilled in war and beloved by 
the soldiers; but I know not how long I shall live. The 
land groans at the cruelties of Twala, the king ; it is 
wearied of him and his red ways.” 

“ Then why is it, Infadoos, that the people do not cast 
him down ?” 

“Nay, my lords, he is the king, and if he were killed 
Scragga would^ reign in his place, and the heart of Scragga 
is blacker than the heart of Twala, his father. If Scragga 


KING SOLOMON'S MINES. 


120 


were king the yoke upon our neck would be heavier than 
the yoke of Twala. If Imotu had never been slain, or if 
Ignosi, his son, had lived, it had been otherwise; but they 
are both dead.” 

‘‘ How know you that Ignosi is dead ?” said a voice be- 
hind us. We looked round with astonishment to see who 
spoke. It was Umbopa. 

“ What meanest thou, boy?” asked Infadoos; “who told 
thee to speak ?” 

“ Listen, Infadoos,” was the answer, “ and I will tell 
thee a story. Years ago the king Imotu was killed in 
this country, and his wife fled with the boy Ignosi. Is it 
not so ?” 

“ It is so.” 

“ It was said that the woman and the boy died upon 
the mountains. Is it not so ?” 

“ It is even so.” 

“Well, it came to pass that the mother and the boy 
Ignosi did not die. They crossed the mountains, and were 
led by a tribe of wandering desert men across the sands 
beyond, till at last they came to water and grass and trees 
again.” 

“ How knowest thou ?” 

“Listen. They travelled on and on, many months’ jour- 
ney, till they reached a land where a people called the 
Amazulu, who too are of the Kukuana stock, live by war, 
and with them they tarried many years, till at length the 
mother died. Then the son, Ignosi, again became a wan- 
derer, and ■went on into a land of wonders, where white 
people live, and for many more years learned the wisdom 
of the white people.” 

“ It is a pretty story,” said Infadoos, incredulously. 

9 


130 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


“For many years he lived there working as a servant 
and a soldier, but holding in his heart all that his mother 
had told him of his own place, and casting about in his 
mind to find how he might get back there to see his own 
people and his father’s house before he died. For many 
years he lived and waited, and at last the time came, as it 
ever comes to him who can wait for it, and he met some 
white men who would seek this unknown land, and joined 
himself to them. The white men started and journeyed 
on and on, seeking for one who is lost. They crossed the 
burning desert, they crossed the snow-clad mountains, and 
reached the land of the Kukuanas, and there they met 
thee, oh Infadoos.” 

‘‘ Surely thou art mad to talk thus,” said the astonished 
old soldier. 

“Thou thinkest so; see, I will show thee, O my uncle. 
“ I am Ignosif rightful king of the Kukuanas 

Then, with a single movement, he slipped off the 
“ moocha,” or girdle round his middle, and stood naked 
before us. 

“Look,” he said; “what is this?” and he pointed to the 
mark of a great snake tattooed in blue round his middle, 
its tail disappearing in its open mouth just above where 
the thighs are set into the body. 

Infadoos looked, his eyes starting nearly out of his head, 
and then fell upon his knees. 

“jffbom/ KoomP' he ejaculated; “it is my brother’s 
son; it is the king.” 

“Did I not tell thee so, my uncle ? Rise; I am not yet 
the king, but with thy help, and with the help of these 
brave white men, who are my friends, I shall be. But the 
old woman Gagool was right; the land shall run with blood 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


131 


first, and hers shall run with it, for she killed my father 
with her words, and drove my mother forth. And now, 
Infadoos, choose thou. Wilt thou put thy hands between 
my hands and be my man ? Wilt thou share the dangers 
that lie before me, and help me to overthrow this tyrant 
and murderer, or wilt thou not ? Choose thou ?” 

The old man put his hand to his head and thought. 
Then he rose, and, advancing to where XJmbopa, or rather 
Ignosi, stood, knelt before him and took his hand. 

‘‘ Ignosi, rightful king of the Kukuanas, I put my hand 
between thy hands, and am thy man till death. When 
thou wast a babe I dandled thee upon my knee; now shall 
my old arm strike for thee and freedom.” 

“It is well, Infadoos; if I conquer, thou shalt be the 
greatest man in the kingdom after the king. If I fail, thou 
canst only die, and death is not far off for thee. Rise, my 
uncle. 

“ And ye, white men, will ye help me ? What have I to 
offer ye ! The white stones, if I conquer and you can find 
them, ye shall have as many as ye can carry hence. Will 
that suffice ye ?” 

I translated this remark. 

“ Tell him,” answered Sir Henry, “ that he mistakes an 
Englishman. Wealth is good, and if it comes in our way 
we will take it; but a gentleman does not sell himself for 
wealth. But, speaking for myself, I say this : I have 
always liked XJmbopa, and so far as in me lies will stand 
by him in this business. It will be very pleasant to me 
to try and square matters with that cruel devil, Twala. 
What do you say. Good, and you, Quatermain ?” 

“Well,” said Good, “to adopt the language of hyper- 
bole, in which all these people seem to indulge, you can tell 


132 


KING SOLOMON'S MINES. 


him that a row is surely good, and warms the cockles of 
the heart, and that, so far as I am concerned, I’m his 
hoy. My only stipulation is that he allows me to wear 
trousers.” 

I translated these answers. 

‘‘It is well, my friends,” said Ignpsi, late Umbopa; 
“and what say you, Macumazahn; art thou too with me, 
old hunter, cleverer than a wounded buffalo ?” 

I thought awhile and scratched my head. 

“Umbopa, or Ignosi,” I said, “I don’t like revolutions. 
I am a man of peace, and a bit of a coward” (here Um- 
bopa smiled), “but, on the other hand, I stick to my 
friends, Ignosi. You have stuck to us and played the part 
of a man, and I will stick to you. But, mind you, I am a 
trader, and have to make my living ; so I accept your offer 
about those diamonds, in case we should ever be in a posi- 
tion to avail ourselves of it. Another thing: we came, as 
you know, to look for Incubu’s (Sir Henry’s) lost brother. 
You must help us to find him.” 

“That will I do,” answered Ignosi. ‘‘Stay, Infadoos; 
by the sign of the snake round my middle, tell me the 
truth. Has any white man to thy knowledge set his foot 
within the land ?” 

“None, O Ignosi.” 

“ If any white man had been seen or heard of, wouldst 
thou have known it ?” 

“ I should certainly have known.” 

“Thou hearest,Incubu?” said Ignosi to Sir Henry ; “he 
has not been here.” 

“Well, well,” said Sir Henry, with a sigh; “ there it is; 
I suppose he never got here. Poor fellow, poor fellow! 
So it has all been for nothing. God’s will be done.” 


KiN<j Solomon’s mines. 


133 


Now for business,” I put in, anxious to escape from a 
painful subject. ‘‘It is very well to be a king by right 
divine, Ignosi, but how dost thou propose to become a king 
indeed ?” 

“ Nay, I know not. Infadoos, hast thou a plan ?” 

“ Ignosi, son of the lightning,” answered his uncle, “to- 
night is the great dance and witch - hunt. Many will be 
smelt out and perish, and in the hearts of many others 
there will be grief and anguish and anger against the king 
Twala. When the dance is over, then will I speak to some 
of the great chiefs, who in turn, if I can win them over, 
shall speak to their regiments. I shall speak to the chiefs 
softly at first, and bring them to see that thou art indeed 
the king, and I think that by to-morrow’s light thou shalt 
have twenty thousand spears at thy command. And now 
must I go and think and hear and make ready. After the 
dance is done I will, if I am yet alive, and we are all alive, 
meet thee here, and we will talk. At the best there will 
be war.” 

At this moment our conference was interrupted by the 
cry that messengers had come from the king. Advanc- 
ing to the door of the hut, we ordered that they should 
be admitted, and presently three men entered, each bear- 
ing a shining shirt of chain -armor and a magnificent 
battle-axe. 

“The gifts of my lord, the king, to the white men 
from the stars !” exclaimed a herald who had come with 
them. 

“We thank the king,” I answered; “withdraw.” 

The men went, and we examined the armor with great 
interest. It was the most beautiful chain-work we had 
ever seen. A whole coat fell together so closely that it 


134 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


formed a mass of links scarcely too big to be covered with 
both hands. 

“Do you make these things in this country, Infadoos?” 
I asked; “they are very beautiful.” 

“Nay, my lord; they come down to us from our fore- 
fathers. We know not who made them, and there are but 
few left. None but those of royal blood may wear them. 
They are magic coats through which no spear can pass. 
He who wears them is well-nigh safe in the battle. The 
king is well pleased or much afraid, or he would not have 
sent them. Wear them to-night, my lords.” 

The rest of the day we spent quietly resting and talking 
over the situation, which was sufficiently exciting. At 
last the sun went down, the thousand watch-fires glowed 
out, and through the darkness we heard the tramp of 
many feet and the clashing of hundreds of spears, as the 
regiments passed to their appointed places to be readv for 
the great dance. About ten the full moon came up in 
splendor, and as we stood watching her ascent Infadoos 
arrived, clad in full war toggery, and accompanied by a 
guard of twenty men to escort us to the dance. We had 
already, as he recommended, donned the shirts of chain 
armor which the king had sent us, putting them on under 
our ordinary clothing, and finding to our surprise that they 
were neither very heavy nor uncomfortable. These steel 
shirts, which had evidently been made for men of a very 
large stature, hung somewhat loosely upon Good and my- 
self, but Sir Henry’s fitted his magnificent frame like a 
glove. Then, strapping our revolvers round our waists, 
and taking the battle-axes which the king had sent with 
the armor in our hands, we started. 

On arriving at the great kraal where we had that morn- 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


135 


ing been interviewed by the king, we found that it was 
closely packed with some twenty thousand men arranged 
in regiments round it. The regiments were in turn di- 
vided into companies, and between each company was a 
little path to allow free passage to the witch-finders to 
pass up and down. Anything more imposing than the 
sight that was presented by this vast and orderly con- 
course of armed men it is impossible for one to conceive. 
There they stood perfectly silent, and the moonlight 
poured its light upon the forest of their raised spears, 
upon their majestic forms, waving plumes, and the har- 
monious shading of their various-colored shields. Wher- 
ever we looked was line upon line of set faces surmounted 
by range upon range of glittering spears. 

“ Surely,” I said to Infadoos, “ the whole army is here ?” 

Nay, Macumazahn,” he answered, ‘‘ but a third part of 
it. One third part is present at this dance each year, an- 
other third part is mustered outside in case there should 
be trouble when the killing begins, ten thousand more 
garrison the outposts round Loo, and the rest watch at 
the kraals in the country. Thou seest it is a very great 
people.” 

“They are very silent,” said Good; and, indeed, the in- 
tense stillness among such a vast concourse of living men 
was almost overpowering. 

“ What says Bougwan ?” asked Infadoos. 

I translated. 

“Those over whom the shadow of death is hovering 
are silent,” he answered, grimly. 

“ Will many be killed ?” 

“ Very many.” 

“ It seems,” I said to the others, “ that we are going to 


136 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


assist at a gladiatorial show arranged regardless of ex- 
pense.” 

Sir Henry shivered, and Good said that he wished that 
we could get out of it. 

“ Tell me,” I asked Infadoos, ‘‘ are we in danger ?” 

“ I know not, my lords — I trust not ; but do not seem 
afraid. If ye live through the night all may go well. 
The soldiers murmur against the king.” 

All this while we had been advancing steadily towards 
the centre of the open space, in the midst of which were 
placed some stools. As we proceeded we perceived an- 
other small party coming from the direction of the royal 
hut. 

‘‘ It is the king, Twala, and Scragga his son, and Gagool 
the old, and see, with them are those who slay,” and he 
pointed to a little group of about a dozen gigantic and 
savage - looking men, armed with spears in one hand and 
heavy kerries in the other. 

The king seated himself upon the centre stool, Gagool 
crouched at his feet, and the others stood behind. 

‘‘ Greeting, white lords,” he cried, as we came up; ‘‘be 
seated, waste not the precious time — the night is all too 
short for the deeds that must be done. Ye come in a 
good hour, and shall see a glorious show. Look round, 
white lords; look round,” and he rolled his one wicked eye 
from regiment to regiment. “ Can the stars show ye such 
a sight as this ? See how they shake in their wickedness, 
all those who have evil in their hearts and fear the judg- 
ment of ‘ Heaven above.’ ” 

Begin! begin P"* cried out Gagool, in her thin, pierc- 
ing voice ; “ the hyenas are hungry, they howl for food. 
Begin! begin P' Then for a moment there was intense 


KING SOLOMON^S MINES. 137 

stillness, made horrible by a presage of wh'^t was to 
come. 

The king lifted his spear, and suddenly twenty thousand 
feet were raised, as though they belonged to one man, and 
brought down with a stamp upon the earth. This was 
repeated three times, causing the solid ground to shake 
and tremble. Then from a far point of the circle a soli- 
tary voice began a wailing song, of which the refrain ran 
something as follows: 

“ What is the lot of man horn of woman 

Back came the answer rolling out from every throat in 
that vast company: 

“ Death /” 

Gradually, however, the song was taken up by company 
after company, till the whole armed multitude were sing- 
ing it, and I could no longer follow the words, except in 
so far as they appeared to represent various phases of hu- 
man passions, fears, and joys. Now it seemed to be a love- 
song, now a majestic swelling war-chant, and last of all a 
death -dirge, ending suddenly in one heartbreaking wail 
that went echoing and rolling away in a volume of blood- 
curdling sound. Again the silence fell upon the place, 
and again it was broken by the king lifting up his hand. 
Instantly there was a pattering of feet, and from out of 
the masses of the warriors strange and awful figures came 
running towards us. As they drew near we saw that they 
were those of women, most of them aged, for their white 
hair, ornamented with small bladders taken from fish, 
streamed out behind them. Their faces were painted in 
stripes of white and yellow; down their backs hung snake- 
skins, and round their waists rattled circlets of human 
bones, while each held in her shrivelled hand a small 


138 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


forked wand. In all there were ten of them. When 
they arrived in front of us they halted, and one of them, 
pointing with her wand towards the crouching figure of 
Gagool, cried out: 

“Mother, old mother, we are here.” 

“ Good! good! goodP^ piped out that aged iniquity. 
“Are your eyes keen, Isanusis” (witch doctresses), “ye 
seers in dark places ?” 

“ Mother, they are keen.” 

^^Good! good! good! Are your ears open, Isanusis, ye 
who hear words that come not from the tongue ?” 

“ Mother, they are open.” 

^^Good! good! good! Are your senses awake, Isanusis 
— can ye smell blood, can ye purge the land of the wicked 
ones who compass evil against the king and against their 
neighbors? Are ye ready to do the justice of ‘Heav- 
en above,’ ye whom I have taught, who have eaten of 
the bread of my wisdom and drunk of the water of my 
magic ?” 

“ Mother, we can.” 

“ Then go ! Tarry not, ye vultures; see the slayers ” — 
pointing to the ominous group of executioners behind — 
“make sharp their spears; the white men from afar are 
hungry to see. Go.” 

With a wild yell the weird party broke away in every 
direction, like fragments from a shell, and, the dry bones 
round their waists rattling as they ran, made direct for 
various points of the dense human circle. We could not 
watch them all, so fixed our eyes upon the Isanusi nearest 
us. When she came within a few paces of the warriors, 
she halted and began to dance wildly, turning round and 
round with an almost incredible rapidity, and shrieking 


KING SOLOMON^S MINES. 


139 


out sentences such as “I smell him, the evil-doer!” “He 
is near, he who poisoned his mother !” “ I hear the 

thoughts of him who thought evil of the king !” 

Quicker and quicker she danced, till she lashed herself 
into such a frenzy of excitement that the foam flew in 
flecks from her gnashing jaws, her eyes seemed to start 
from her head, and her flesh to quiver visibly. Suddenly 
she stopped dead, and stiffened all over, like a pointer dog 
when he scents game, and then with outstretched wand 
began to creep stealthily towards the soldiers before her. 
It seemed to us that as she came their stoicism gave way, 
and that they shrank from her. As for ourselves, we fol- 
lowed her movements with a horrible fascination. Pres- 
ently, still creeping and crouching like a dog, she was be- 
fore them. Then she stopped and pointed, and then again 
crept on a pace or two. 

Suddenly the end came. With a shriek she sprang in 
and touched a tall warrior with the forked wand. In- 
stantly two of his comrades, those standing immediately 
next to him, seized the doomed man, each by one arm, and 
advanced with him towards the king. 

He did not resist, but we saw that he dragged his limbs 
as though they were paralyzed, and his fingers, from which 
the spear had fallen, were limp as those of a man newly 
dead. 

As he came, two of the villainous executioners stepped 
forward to meet him. Presently they met, and the exe- 
cutioners turned round towards the king as though for or- 
ders. 

“ Kill /” said the king. 

“ Kill /” squeaked Gagool. 

Kill re-echoed Scragga, with a hollow chuckle. 


140 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


Almost before the words were uttered, the horrible deed 
was done. One man had driven his spear into the victim’s 
heart, and, to make assurance doubly sure, the other had 
dashed out his brains with his great club. 

“ One^'' counted Twala, the king, just like a black Madame 
Defarge, as Good said, and the body was dragged a few, 
paces away and stretched out. 

Hardly was this done before another poor wretch was 
brought up, like an ox to the slaughter. This time we 
could see, from the leopard-skin cloak, that the man was 
a person of rank. Again the awful syllables were spoken, 
and the victim fell dead. 

“ Two^'' counted the king. 

And so the deadly game went on, till some hundred 
bodies were stretched in rows behind us. I have heard of 
the gladiatorial shows of the Caesars, and of the Spanish 
bull-fights, but I take the liberty of doubting if they were 
either of them half as horrible as this Kukuana witch-hunt. 
Gladiatorial shows and Spanish bull-fights, at any rate, 
contributed to the public amusement, which certainly was 
not the case here. The most confirmed sensation-monger 
would fight shy of sensation if he knew that it was well 
on the cards that he would, in his own proper person, be 
the subject of the next “event.” 

Once we rose and tried to remonstrate, but were sternly 
repressed by Twala. 

“Let the law take its course, white men. These dogs 
are magicians and evil-doers; it is well that they should 
die,” was the only answer vouchsafed to us. 

About midnight there was a pause. The witch-finders 
gathered themselves together, apparently exhausted with 
their bloody work, and we thought that the whole per- 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


141 


formance was done with. But it was not so, for present- 
ly, to our surprise, the old woman, Gagool, rose from her 
crouching position, and, supporting herself with a stick, 
staggered off into the open space. It was an extraordinary 
sight to see this frightful, vulture-headed old creature, bent 
nearly double with extreme age, gather strength by de- 
grees till at last she rushed about almost as actively as her 
ill-omened pupils. To and fro she ran, chanting to herself, 
till suddenly she made a dash at a tall man standing in 
front of one of the regiments, and touched him. As she 
did so a sort of groan went up from the regiment, which 
he evidently commanded. But all the same two of its 
members seized him and brought him up for execution. 
We afterwards learned that he was a man of great wealth 
and importance, being, indeed, a cousin of the king’s. 

He was slain, and the king counted one hundred and 
three. Then Gagool again sprang to and fro, gradually 
drawing nearer and nearer to ourselves. 

“Hang me if I don’t believe she is going to try her 
games on us,” ejaculated Good, in horror. 

“Nonsense !” said Sir Henry. 

As for myself, as I saw that old fiend dancing nearer 
and nearer, my heart positively sank into my boots. I 
glanced behind us at the long rows of corpses, and 
shivered. 

Nearer and nearer waltzed Gagool, looking for all the 
world like an animated crooked stick, her horrid eyes 
gleaming and glowing with a most unholy lustre. 

Nearer she came, and nearer yet, every pair of eyes in 
that vast assemblage watching her movements with in- 
tense anxiety. At last she stood still and pointed. 

“ Which is it to be ?” asked Sir Henry, to himself. 


142 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


In a moment all doubts were set at rest, for the old 
woman had rushed in and touched Umbopa, alias Ignosi, 
on the shoulder. 

‘‘ I smell him out,” she shrieked. ‘‘ Kill him, kill him, 
he is full of evil ; kill him, the stranger, before blood flows 
for him. Slay him, O king.” 

There was a pause, which I instantly took advantage of. 

“ O king,” I called out, rising from my seat, “ this man 
is the servant of thy guests, he is their dog ; whosoever 
sheds the blood of our dog sheds our blood. By the sa- 
cred law of hospitality I claim protection for him.” 

“ Gagool, mother of the witch doctors, has smelled him 
out; he must die, white men,” was the sullen answer. 

“Nay, he shall not die,” I replied ; “he who tries to 
touch him shall die indeed.” 

“Seize him !” roared Twala, to the executioners, who 
stood around red to the eyes with the blood of their vic- 
tims. 

They advanced towards us, and then hesitated. As for 
Ignosi, he raised his spear, and raised it as though deter- 
mined to sell his life dearly. 

“Stand back, ye dogs,” I shouted, “if ye would see to- 
morrow’s light. Touch one hair of his head and your king 
dies,” and I covered Twala with my revolver. Sir Henry 
and Good also drew their pistols. Sir Henry pointing his 
at the leading executioner, who was advancing to carry out 
the sentence, and Good taking a deliberate aim at Gagool. 

Twala winced perceptibly, as my barrel came in a line 
with his broad chest. 

“ Well,” I said, “ what is it to be, Twala ?” 

Then he spoke. 

“Put away your magic tubes,” he said; “ye have ad- 


KING Solomon’s minks. 


143 


jured me in the name of hospitality, and for that reason, 
but not from fear of what ye can do, I spare him. Go in 
peace.” 

“It is well,” I answered, unconcernedly; “ we are weary 
of slaughter, and would sleep. Is the dance ended ?” 

“It is ended,” Twala answered, sulkily. “Let these 
dogs,” pointing to the long rows of corpses, “ be flung out 
to the hyenas and the vultures,” and he lifted his spear. 

Instantly the regiments began in perfect silence to defile 
off through the kraal gateway, a fatigue party only re- 
maining behind to drag away the corpses of those who had 
been sacrificed. 

Then we too rose, and, making our salaam to his majesty, 
which he hardly deigned to acknowledge, departed to our 
kraal. 

“Well,” said Sir Henry, as we sat down, having first lit 
a lamp of the sort used by the Kukuanas, of which the 
wick is made of the fibre of a species of palm leaf and the 
oil of clarified hippopotamus fat, “ well, I feel uncommon- 
ly inclined to be sick.” 

“ If I had any doubts about helping Umbopa to rebel 
against that infernal blackguard,” put in Good, “they are 
gone now. It was as much as I could do to sit still while 
that slaughter was going on. I tried to keep my eyes 
shut, but they would open just at the wrong time. I won- 
der where Infadoos is. Umbopa, my friend, you ought to 
be grateful to us ; your skin came near to having an air- 
hole made in it.” 

“I am grateful, Bougwan,” was Umbopa’s answer, when 
I had translated, “ and I shall not forget. As for lufa- 
doos, he will be here by and by. We must wait.” 

So we lit our pipes and waited. 


CHAPTER XI. 

WE GIVE A SIGN. 

For a long while — two hours, I should think — we sat 
there in silence, for we were too overwhelmed by the rec- 
ollection of the horrors we had seen to talk. At last, just 
as we were thinking of turning in — for already there were 
faint streaks of light in the eastern sky — we heard the 
sound of steps. Then came the challenge of the sentry 
who was posted at the kraal gate, which was apparently 
answered, though not in an audible tone, for the steps 
came on; and in another second Infadoos had entered the 
hut, followed by some half a dozen stately-looking chiefs. 

“ My lords,” he said, “ I have come, according to my 
word. My lords and Ignosi, rightful king of the Kuku- 
anas, I have brought with me these men,” pointing to the 
row of chiefs, “who are great men among us, having each 
one of them the command of three thousand soldiers, who 
live but to do their bidding, under the king’s. I have told 
them of what I have seen, and what my ears have heard. 
Now let them also see the sacred snake around thee, and 
hear thy story, Ignosi, that they may say whether or no 
they will make cause with thee against Twala the king.” 

Fijr answer, Ignosi again stripped off his girdle and ex- 
hibited the snake tattooed ‘ around him. Each chief in 
turn drew near and examined it by the dim light of the 
lamp, and without saying a word passed on to the other 
side. 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


145 


Then Ignosi resumed his moocha and, addressing them, 
repeated the history he had detailed in the morning. 

“Now ye have heard, chiefs,” said Infadoos, when he 
had done, “what say ye; will ye stand by this man and 
help him to his father’s throne, or will ye not ? The land 
cries out against Twala, and the blood of the people flows 
like the waters in spring. Ye have seen to-night. Two 
other chiefs there were with whom I had it in my mind to 
speak, and where are they now ? The hyenas howl over 
their corpses. Soon will ye be as they are if ye strike not. 
Choose, then, my brothers.” 

The eldest of the six men, a short, thick-set warrior, with 
white hair, stepped forward a pace and answered, 

“ Thy words are true, Infadoos; the land cries out. My 
own brother is among those who died to-night ; but this 
is a great matter, and the thing is hard to believe. How 
know we that if we lift our spears it may not be for an im- 
postor ? It is a great matter, I say, and none may see the 
end of it. For of this be sure, blood will flow in rivers 
before the deed is done; many will still cleave to the king, 
for men worship the sun that still shines bright in the 
heavens, and not that which has not risen. These white 
men from the stars, their magic is great, and Ignosi is 
under the cover of their wing. If he be indeed the right- 
ful king, let them give us a sign, and let the people have 
a sign, that all may see. So shall men cleave to us, know- 
ing that the white man’s magic is with them.” 

“Ye have the sign of the snake,” I answered. 

“ My lord, it is not enough. The snake may have been 
placed there since the man’s birth. Show us a sign. We 
will not move without a sign.” 

The others gave a decided assent, and I turned in per- 
10 


146 KING Solomon’s mines. 

plexity to Sir Henry and Good, and explained the situa- 
tion. 

‘‘I think I have it,” said Good, exultingly; ‘‘ask them 
to give us a moment to think.” 

I did so, and the chiefs withdrew. As soon as they 
were gone. Good went to the little box in which his medi- 
cines were, unlocked it, and took out a note-book, in the 
front of which was an almanac. “ Now, look here, you 
fellows, isn’t to-morrow the fourth of June?” 

We had kept a careful note of the days, so were able to 
answer that it was. 

“Very good; then here we have it — ‘4 June, total 
eclipse of the sun commences at 11.15 Greenwich time, 
visible in these islands, Africa, etc.’ There’s a sign for 
you. Tell them that you will darken the sun to-morrow.” 

The idea was a splendid one ; indeed, the only fear 
about it was a fear lest Good’s almanac might be incor- 
rect. If we made a false prophecy on such a subject, our 
prestige would be gone forever, and so would Ignosi’s 
chance of the throne of the Kukuanas. 

“ Suppose the almanac is wrong ?” suggested Sir Henry 
to Gk)od, who was busily employed in working out some- 
thing on the fly-leaf of the book. 

“I don’t see any reason to suppose anything of the 
sort,” was his answer. “Eclipses always come up to 
time ; at least, that is my experience of them, and it es- 
pecially states that it will be visible in Africa. I have 
worked out the reckonings as well as I can without know- 
ing our exact position ; and I make out that the eclipse 
should begin here about one o’clock to-morrow, and last 
till half-past two. For half an hour or more there should 
be total darkness.” 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


147 


"Well,” said Sir Henry, "I suppose we had better risk 
it.” 

I acquiesced, though doubtfully, for eclipses are queer 
cattle to deal with, and sent Umbopa to summon the 
chiefs back. Presently they came, and I addressed them 
thus : 

" Great men of the Kukuanas, and thou, Infadoos, lis- 
ten. W e are not fond of showing our powers, since to do 
so is to interfere with the course of nature, and plunge 
the world into fear and confusion ; but as this matter is 
a great one, and as we are angered against the king be- 
cause of the slaughter we have seen, and because of the 
act of the Isanusi Gagool, who would have put our friend 
Ignosi to death, we have determined to do so, and to give 
such a sign as all men may see. Come thither,” and I led 
them to the door of the hut and pointed to the fiery ball 
of the rising sun ; " what see ye there ?” 

"We see the rising sun,” answered the spokesman of 
the party. 

"It is so. Now tell me, can any mortal man put out 
that sun, so that night comes down on the land at mid- 
day?” 

The chief laughed a little. " No, my lord, that no man 
can do. The sun is stronger than man who looks on 
him.” 

"Ye say so. Yet I tell you that this day, one hour af- 
ter midday, will we put out that sun for a space of an 
hour, and darkness shall cover the earth, and it shall be 
for a sign that we are indeed men of honor, and that Ig- 
nosi is indeed king of the Kukuanas. If we do this thing 
will it satisfy ye ?” ; 

"Yea, my lords,” answered the old chief with a smile, 


148 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


which was reflected on the faces of his companions ; 
ye do this thing we will be satisfied indeed.” 

“ It shall be done: we three, Incubu the Elephant, Boug- 
wan the clear-eyed, and Macumazahn, who watches in the 
night, have said it, and it shall be done. Dost thou hear, 
Infadoos ?” 

“ I hear, my lord, but it is a wonderful thing that ye 
promise, to put out the sun, the father of all things, who 
shines forever.” 

“Yet shall we do it, Infadoos.” 

“It is well, my lords. To-day, a little after midday, 
will Twala send for my lords to witness the girls dance, 
and* one hour after the dance begins shall the girl whom 
Twala thinks the fairest be killed by Scragga, the king’s 
son, as a sacrifice to the silent stone ones, who sit and keep 
watch by the mountains yonder,” and he pointed to the 
three strange-looking peaks where Solomon’s Road was 
supposed to end. “ Then let my lords darken the sun, and 
save the maiden’s life, and the people will indeed believe.” 

“ Ay,” said the old chief, still smiling a little, “ the peo- 
ple will believe, indeed.” 

“Two miles from Loo,” went on Infadoos, “there is a 
hill curved like the new moon, a stronghold, where my 
regiment, and three other regiments which these men com- 
mand, are stationed. This morning we will make a plan 
whereby other regiments, two or three, may be moved 
there also. Then, if my lords can indeed darken the sun, 
in the darkness I will take my lords by the hand and lead 
them out of Loo to this place, where they shall be safe, 
and thence can we make war upon Twala, the king.” 

“It is good,” said I. “Now leave us to sleep awhil# 
and make ready our magic.” 


KING Solomon’s mines. 149 

Infadoos rose, and, having saluted us, departed with the 
chiefs. 

‘‘My friends,” said Ignosi, as soon as they were gone, 
“ can ye indeed do this wonderful thing, or were ye speak- 
ing empty words to the men ?” 

“We believe that we can do it, Umbopa — Ignosi, I 
mean.” 

“It is strange,” he answered, “and had ye not been 
Englishmen I would not have believed it ; but English 
‘ gentlemen ’ tell no lies. If we live through the matter, 
be sure I will repay ye !” 

“Ignosi,” said Sir Henry, “promise me one thing.” 

“ I will promise, Incubu, my friend, even before I hear 
it,” answered the big man with a smile. “ What is it ?” 

“ This : that if you ever come to be king of this people 
you will do away with the smelling out of witches such as 
we have seen last night; and that the killing of men with- 
out trial shall not take place in the land.” 

Ignosi thought for a moment, after I had translated this, 
and then answered : 

“ The ways of black people aiC not as the ways of white 
men, Incubu, nor do we hold life so high as ye. Yet will 
I promise it. If it be in my po«>''3r to hold them back, the 
witch-finders shall hunt no more, nor shall any man die 
the death without judgment.” 

That’s a bargain, then,’' said Sir Henry ; “ and now let 
us get a little rest.” 

Thoroughly wearied out, we were soon sound asleep, 
and slept till Ignosi woke us about eleven o’clock. Then 
we got up, washed, and ate a hearty breakfast, not know- 
ing when we should get any more food. After that we 
went outside the hut and stared at the sun, which we wer« 


150 


KING Solomon's mines. 


distressed to observe presented a remarkably healtjiy ap« 
pearance, without a sign of an eclipse anywhere about it. 

“ I hope it will come off,” said Sir Henry, doubtfully. 
“False prophets often find themselves in painful posi- 
tions.” 

“ If it does not, it will soon be up with us,” I answered, 
mournfully ; “ for so sure as we are living men, some of 
those chiefs will tell the whole story to the king, and then 
there will be another sort of eclipse, and one that we shall 
not like.” 

Returning to the hut, we dressed ourselves, putting on 
the mail shirts which the king had sent us as before. 
Scarcely had we done so when a messenger came from 
Twala to bid us to the great annual “dance of girls” 
which was about to be celebrated. 

Taking our rifles and ammunition with us so as to have 
them handy in case we had to fly, as suggested by Infa- 
doos, we started boldly enough, though with inward fear 
and trembling. The great space in front of the king’s 
kraal presented a very different appearance from what it 
had done on the previous evening. In the place of the 
grim ranks of serried warriors were company after com- 
pany of Kiikuana girls, not overdressed, so far as clothing 
went, but each crowned with a wreath of flowers, and 
holding a palm leaf in one hand and a tall white lily (the 
arum) in the other. In the centre of the open space sat 
Twala, the king, with old Gagool at his feet, attended by 
Infadoos, the boy Scragga, and about a dozen guards. 
There were also present about a score of chiefs, among 
whom I recognized most of our friends of the night before. 

Twala greeted us with much apparent cordiality, though 
I saw him fix his one eye viciously on Umbopa. 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


161 


“Welcome, white men from the stars,” he said; “this 
is a different sight from what your eyes gazed on by the 
light of last night’s moon, but it is not so good a sight. 
Girls are pleasant, and were it not for such as these ” (and 
he pointed round him) “ we should none of us be here to- 
day; but men are better. Kisses and the tender words 
of women are sweet, but the sound of the clashing of 
men’s spears, and the smell of men’s blood, are sweeter 
far ! Would ye have wives from among our people, white 
men ? If so, choose the fairest here, and ye shall have 
them, as many as ye will;” and he paused for an answer. 

As the prospect did not seem to be without attractions 
to Good, who was, like most sailors, of a susceptible nat- 
ure, I, being elderly and wise, and foreseeing the endless 
complications that anything of the sort would involve 
(for women bring trouble as surely as the night follows 
the day), put in a hasty answer : 

“ Thanks, O king, but we white men wed only with 
white women like ourselves. Your maidens are fair, but 
they are not for us !” 

The king laughed. “ It is well. In our land there is a 
proverb which says, “Woman’s eyes are always bright, 
whatever the color,’ and another which says, ‘ Love her 
who is present, for be sure she who is absent is false to 
thee;’ but perhaps these things are not so in the stars. In 
a land where men are white all things are possible. So 
be it, white men; the girls will not go begging! Wel- 
come again; and welcome, too, thou black one; if Gagool 
here had had her way thou wouldst have been stiff and 
cold now. It is lucky that thou, too, earnest from the 
stars; ha ! ha !” 

‘‘I can kill thee before thou killest me, O king,” was 


152 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


Ignosi’s calm answer, ‘‘and thou shalt be stiff before my 
limbs cease to bend.” 

Twala started. “ Thou speakest boldly, boy,” he re- 
plied, angrily; “presume not too far.” 

“ He may well be bold in whose lips are truth. The 
truth is a sharp spear which flies home and fails not. It 
is a message from ‘ the stars,’ O king !” 

Twala scowled, and his one eye gleamed fiercely, but he 
said nothing more. 

“Let the dance begin,” he cried, and next second the 
flower-crowned girls sprang forward in companies, sing- 
ing a sweet song and waving the delicate palms and white 
flowers. On they danced, now whirling round and round, 
now meeting in mimic warfare, swaying, eddying here 
and there, coming forward, falling back in an ordered con- 
fusion delightful to witness. At last they paused, and a 
beautiful young woman sprang out of the ranks and be- 
gan to pirouette in front of us with a grace and vigor 
which would have put most ballet -girls to shame. At 
length she fell back exhausted, and another took her place, 
then another and another, but none of them, either in 
grace, skill, or personal attractions, came up to the first. 

At length the king lifted his hand. 

“ Which think ye the fairest, white men ?” he asked. 

“The first,” said I, unthinkingly. Next second I re- 
gretted it, for I remembered that Infadoos had said that 
the fairest woman was offered as a sacrifice. 

“ Then is my mind as your minds, and my eyes as your 
eyes. She is the fairest; and a sorry thing it is for her, 
for she must die !” 

“Ay, must dieP^ piped out Gagool, casting a glance 
from her quick eyes in the direction of the poor girl, who. 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


15 « 


as yet ignorant of the awful fate in store for her, was 
standing some twenty yards off in front of a company of 
girls, engaged in nervously picking a flower from her 
wreath to pieces, petal by petal. 

“ Why, O king ?” said I, restraining my indignation 
with difficulty; “the girl has danced well and pleased us; 
she is fair, too ; it would be hard to reward her with 
death.” 

Twala laughed as he answered: 

“ It is our custom, and the figures who sit in stone yon- 
der” (and he pointed towards the three distant peaks) 
“ must have their due. Did I fail to put the fairest girl 
to death to-day misfortune would fall upon me and my 
house. Thus runs the prophecy of my people: “If the 
king offer not a sacrifice of a fair girl on the day of the 
dance of maidens to the old ones who sit and watch on the 
mountains, then shall he fall and his house.’ Look ye, 
white men, my brother who reigned before me offered 
not the sacrifice, because of the tears of the woman, and 
he fell, and his house, and I reign in his stead. It is fin- 
ished ; she must die !” Then, turning to the guards — 
“Bring her hither; Scragga, make sharp thy spear.” 

Two of the men stepped forward, and as they did so 
the girl, for the first time realizing her impending fate, 
screamed aloud and turned to fly. But the strong hands 
caught her fast, and brought her, struggling and weeping, 
up before us. 

“ What is thy name, girl ?” piped Gagool. “ What ! 
wilt thou not answer; shall the king’s son do his work at 
once ?” 

At this hint Scragga, looking more evil than ever, ad- 
vanced a step and lifted his great spear, and as he did so 


154 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


I saw Good’s hand creep to his revolver. The poor girl 
caught the glint of the cold steel through her tears, and 
it sobered her anguish. She ceased struggling, but merely- 
clasped her hands convulsively, and stood shuddering 
from head to foot. 

‘‘ See,” cried Scragga, in high glee, she shrinks from 
the sight of my little plaything even before she has tasted 
it,” and he tapped the broad blade of the spear. 

“If I ever get the chance, you shall pay for that, you 
young hound !” I heard Good mutter beneath his breath. 

“ Now that thou art quiet, give us thy name, my dear. 
Come, speak up, and fear not,” said Gagool in mockery. 

“ Oh, mother,” answered the girl in trembling accents, 
“ my name is Foulata, of the house of Suko. Oh, mother, 
why must I die ? I have done no wrong !” 

“ Be comforted,” went on the old woman, in her hate- 
ful tone of mockery. “Thou must die, indeed, as a sacri- 
fice to the old ones who sit yonder” (and she pointed to 
the peaks) ; “ but it is better to sleep in the night than to 
toil in.the day-time; it is better to die than to live, and 
thou shalt die by the royal hand of the king’s own son.” 

The girl Foulata wrung her hands in anguish, and cried 
out aloud: “Oh, cruel; and I so young ! What have I 
done that I should never again see the sun rise out of the 
night, or the stars come following on his track in the even- 
ing: that I should no more gather the flowers when the 
dew is heavy, or listen to the laughing of the waters ! 
Woe is me, that I shall never see my father’s hut again, 
nor feel my mother’s kiss, nor tend the kid that is sick ! 
W oe is me, that no lover shall put his arm around me and 
look into my eyes, nor shall men-children be born of me! 
Ob, cruel, cruel !” and again she wrung her hands and 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


155 


turned her tear - stained, flower - crowned face to heaven, 
looking so lovely in her despair — for she was indeed a 
beautiful woman — that it would assuredly have melted 
the hearts of any one less cruel than the three fiends be- 
fore us. Prince Arthur’s appeal to the ruffians who came 
to blind him was not more touching than this savage 
girl’s. 

But it did not move Gagool or Gagool’s master, though 
I saw signs of pity among the guard behind and on the 
faces of the chiefs; and as for Good, he gave a sort of 
snort of indignation, and made a motion as though to go 
to her. With all a woman’s quickness, the doomed girl 
interpreted what was passing in his mind, and with a sud- 
den movement flung herself before him, and clasped his 
“ beautiful white legs ” with her hands. 

“Oh, white father from the stars !” she cried, “throw 
over me the mantle of thy protection ; let me creep into 
the shadow of thy strength, that I may be saved. Oh, 
keep me from these cruel men and from the mercies of 
Gagool !” 

“All right, my hearty. I’ll look after you,” sang out 
Good, in nervous Saxon. “ Come, get up, there’s a good 
girl,” and he stooped and caught her hand. 

Twala turned and motioned to his son, who advanced 
with his spear lifted. 

“ Now’s your time,” whispered Sir Henry to me; “ what 
are you waiting for ?” 

“I am waiting for the eclipse,” I answered; “I have 
had my eye on the sun for the last half-hour, and I never 
saw it look healthier.” 

“ Well, you must risk it now or the girl will be killed. 
Twala is losing patience.” 


156 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


Recognizing the force of the argument, having cast 
one more despairing look at the bright face of the sun, 
for never did the most ardent astronomer with a theory 
to prove await a celestial event with such anxiety, I 
stepped, with all the dignity I could command, between 
the prostrate girl and the advancing spear of Scragga. 

“ King,” I said; “this shall not be; we will not tolerate 
such a thing; let the girl go in safety.” 

Twala rose from his seat in his wrath and astonishment, 
and from the chiefs and serried ranks of girls, who had 
slowly closed in upon us in anticipation of the tragedy, 
came a murmur of amazement. 

“ Shall not he, thou white dog, who yaps at the lion in 
his cave ; shall not be! Art thou mad ? Be careful lest 
this chicken’s fate overtake thee and those with thee. 
How canst thou prevent it? Who art thou, that thou 
standest between me and my will ? Withdraw, I say. 
Scragga, kill her. Ho, guards ! seize these men.” 

At his cry armed men came running swiftly from be- 
hind the hut, where they had evidently been placed be- 
forehand. 

Sir Henry, Good, and Umbopa ranged themselves along- 
side of me and lifted their rifles. 

“ Stop !” I shouted, boldly, though at the moment my 
heart was in my boots. “ Stop ! we, the white men from 
the stars, say that it shall not be. Come but one pace 
nearer and we will put out the sun and plunge the land in 
darkness. Ye shall taste of our magic.” 

My threat produced an effect ; the men halted, and 
Scragga stood still before us, his spear lifted. 

“Hear him! hear him!” piped Gagool; “hear the liar 
who says he will put out the sun like a lamp. Let him do 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. . 157 

it and the girl shall he spared. Yes, let him do it, or die 
with the girl, he and those with him.” 

I glanced up at the sun, and, to my intense joy and re- 
lief, saw that we had made no mistake. On the edge of 
its brilliant surface was a faint rim of shadow. 

I lifted my hand solemnly towards the sky, an example 
which Sir Henry and Good followed, and quoted a line or 
two of the “Ingoldsby Legends” at it in the most im- 
pressive tones I could command. Sir Henry followed suit 
with a verse out of the Old Testament, while Good ad- 
dressed the king of day in a volume of the most classical 
bad language that he could think of. 

Slowly the dark rim crept on over the blazing surface, 
and as it did so I heard a deep gasp of fear rise from the 
multitude around. 

‘‘ Look, O king ! look, Gagool ! Look, chiefs and peo- 
ple and women, and see if the white men from the stars 
keep their word, or if they be but empty liars ! 

The sun grows dark before your eyes; soon there will 
be night — ay, night in the noon-time. Ye have asked for 
a sign; it is given to ye. Grow dark, O sun! withdraw 
thy light, thou bright one; bring the proud heart to the 
dust, and eat up the world with shadows.” 

A groan of terror rose from the onlookers. Some stood 
petrified with fear, others threw themselves upon their 
knees and cried out. As for the king, he sat still and 
turned pale beneath his dusky skin. Only Gagool kept 
her courage. 

“It will pass,” she cried; “I have seen the like before; 
no man can put out the sun; lose not heart; sit still — the 
shadow will pass.” 

“Wait, and ye shall see,” I replied, hopping with sx' 
citement. 


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KING Solomon’s mines. 


“ Keep it up, Good ; I can’t remember any more poetry. 
Curse away, there’s a good fellow.” 

Good responded nobly to the tax upon his inventive 
faculties. Never before had I the faintest conception of 
the breadth and depth and height of a naval officer’s ob- 
jurgatory powers. For ten minutes he went on without 
stopping, and he scarcely ever repeated himself. 

Meanwhile the dark ring crept on. Strange and unholy 
shadows encroached upon the sunlight, an ominous quiet 
filled the place, the birds chirped out frightened notes and 
then were still; only the cocks began to crow. 

On, yet on, crept the ring of darkness; it was now more 
than half over the reddening orb. The air grew thick 
and dusky. On, yet on, till we could scarcely see the fierce 
faces of the group before us. No sound now rose from 
the spectators, and Good stopped swearing. 

“ The sun is dying — the wizards have killed the sun,” 
yelled out the boy Scragga at last. “We shall all die in 
the dark,” and, animated by fear or fury, or both, he lift- 
ed his spear and drove it with all his force at Sir Henry’s 
broad chest. But he had forgotten the mail shirts that 
the king had given us, and which we wore beneath our 
clothing. The steel rebounded harmless, and before he 
could repeat the blow Sir Henry had snatched the spear 
from his hand and sent it straight through him. He 
dropped dead. 

At the sight, and driven mad with fear at the gathering 
gloom, the companies of girls broke up in wild confusion 
and ran screeching for the gateways. Nor did the panic 
stop there. The king himself, followed by the guards, 
some of the chiefs, and Gagool, who hobbled away after 
them with marvellous alacrity, fled for the huts, so that 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


159 


in another minute or so ourselves, the would-be victim, 
Foulata, Infadoos, and some of the chiefs who had inter- 
viewed us on the previous night, were left alone upon the 
scene with the dead body of Scragga. 

“ Now, chiefs,” I said, ‘‘ we have given you the sign. 
If ye are satisfied, let us fly swiftly to the place ye spoke 
of. The charm cannot now be stopped. It will work for 
an hour. Let us take advantage of the darkness.” 

“ Come,” said Infadoos, turning to go, an example which 
was followed by the awed chiefs, ourselves, and the girl 
Foulata, whom Good took by the hand. 

Before we reached the gate of the kraal the sun went 
out altogether. 

Holding each other by the hand we stumbled on through 
the darkness. 


CHAPTER XII. 

BEFORE THE BATTLE. 

Luckily for us, Infadoos and the chiefs knew all tht 
pathways of the great town perfectly, so that, notwith- 
standing the intense gloom, we made fair progress. 

For an hour or more we journeyed on, till at length the 
eclipse began to pass, and that edge of the sun which had 
disappeared the first became again visible. In another 
five minutes there was sufficient light to see our where- 
abouts, and we then discovered that we were clear of the 
town of Loo, and approaching a large, flat - topped hill, 
measuring some two miles in circumference. This hill, 
which was of a formation very common in Southern Afri- 
ca, was not very high; indeed, its greatest elevation was 
not more than two hundred feet, but it was shaped like a 
horseshoe, and its sides were rather precipitous and strewn 
with boulders. On the grass table-land at the top was 
ample camping-ground, which had been utilized as a mili- 
tary cantonment of no mean strength. Its ordinary gar- 
rison was one regiment of three thousand men, but as we 
toiled up the steep side of the hill in the returning day- 
light we perceived that there were many more warrioi*s 
than that upon it. 

Reaching the table-land at last, we found crowds of 
men huddled together in the utmost consternation at the 
natural phenomenon which they were witnessing. Passing 
through these without a word, we gained a hut in the cen- 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


161 


tre of the ground, where we were astonished to find two 
men waiting, laden with our few goods and chattels, 
which, of course, we had been obliged to leave behind in 
our hasty flight. 

“ I sent for them,” explained Infadoos ; “ also for these,” 
and he lifted up Good’s long-lost trousers. 

With an exclamation of rapturous delight Good sprang 
at them, and instantly proceeded to put them on. 

‘‘ Surely my lord will not hide his beautiful white legs !” 
exclaimed Infadoos, regretfully. 

But Good persisted, and .once only did the Kukuana 
people get the chance of seeing his beautiful legs again. 
Good is a very modest man. Henceforward they had to 
satisfy their aesthetic longings with one whisker, his trans- 
parent eye, and his movable teeth. 

Still gazing with fond remembrance at Good’s trousers, 
Infadoos next informed us that he had summoned the regi- 
ments to explain to them fully the rebellion which was 
decided on by the chiefs, and to introduce to them the 
rightful heir to the throne, Ignosi. 

In half an hour the troops, in all nearly twenty thou- 
sand men, constituting the flower of the Kukuana arm/, 
were mustered on a large, open space, to which we pro- 
ceeded. The men were drawn up in three sides of a dense 
square, and presented a magnificent spectacle. We took 
our station on the open side of the square, and were speed- 
ily surrounded by all the principal chiefs and ofiicers. 

These, after silence had been proclaimed, Infadoos pro- 
ceeded to address. He narrated to them in vigorous and 
graceful language — for, like most Kukuanas of high rank, 
he was a born orator — the history of Ignosi ’s father, how 
he had been basely murdered by Twala, the king, and his 
11 


162 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


wife and child driven out to starve. Then he pointed out 
how the land suffered and groaned under Twala’s cruel 
rule, instancing the proceedings of the previous night, 
when, under pretence of their being evil-doers, many of 
the noblest in the land had been hauled forth and cruelly 
done to death. Next he went on to say that the white 
lords from the stars, looking down on the land, had per- 
ceived its trouble, and determined, at great personal in- 
convenience, to alleviate its lot; how they had accordingly 
taken the real king of the country, Ignosi, who was lan- 
guishing in exile, by the hand and led him over the moun- 
tains; how they had seen the wickedness of Twala’s do- 
ings, and for a sign to the wavering, and to save the life 
of the girl Foulata, had actually, by the exercise of their 
high magic, put out the sun and slain the young fiend, 
Scragga; and how they were prepared to stand by them, 
and assist them to overthrow Twala, and set up the right- 
ful king, Ignosi, in his place. 

He finished his discourse amid a murmur of approba- 
tion, and then Ignosi stepped forward and began to speak. 
Having reiterated all that Infadoos, his uncle, had said, he 
concluded a powerful speech in these words: 

“ O chiefs, captains, soldiers, and people, ye have heard 
my words. Now must ye make choice between me and 
him who sits upon my throne, the uncle who killed his 
brother, and hunted his brother’s child forth to die in the 
cold and the night. That I am indeed the king these ” — 
pointing to the chiefs — can tell ye, for they have seen 
the snake about my middle. If I were not the king, would 
these white men be on my side, with all their magic ? Trem- 
ble, chiefs, captains, soldiers, and people! Is not the dark- 
ness they have brought upon the land to confound Twala, 
and cover our flight, yet before your eyes ?” 


KING Solomon’s mines.' 


163 


It is,” answered the soldiers. 

‘‘ I am the king ; I say to ye, I am the king,” went on 
Ignosi, drawing up his great stature to its full, and lifting 
his broad-bladed battle-axe above his head. ‘‘ If there be 
any man among ye who says that it is not so, let him 
stand forth, and I will fight him now, and his blood shall 
be a red token that I tell ye true. Let him stand forth, I 
say ;” and he shook the great axe till it flashed in the sun- 
light. 

As nobody seemed inclined to respond to this heroic 
version of “ DiHy, DiHy, come and be killed,” our late 
henchman proceeded with his address. 

“ I am indeed the king, and if ye do stand by my side 
in the battle, if I win the day ye shall go with me to vic- 
tory and honor. I will give ye oxen and wives, and ye 
shall take place of all the regiments; and if ye fall I will 
fall with ye. 

“ And behold, this promise do I give ye, that when I sit 
upon the seat of my fathers, bloodshed shall cease in the 
land. No longer shall ye cry for justice to find slaughter, 
no longer shall the witch-finder hunt ye out so that ye be 
slain without a cause. No man shall die save he who of- 
fendeth against the laws. The ‘ eating up ’ of your kraals 
shall cease; each shall sleep secure in his own hut and fear 
not, and justice shall walk blind throughout the land. Have 
ye chosen, chiefs, captains, soldiers, and people ?” 

“We have chosen, O king,” came back the answer. 

“ It is well. Turn your heads and see how Twala’s 
messengers go forth from the great town, east and west, 
and north and south, to gather a mighty army to slay me 
and ye, and these my friends and my protectors. To-mor- 
row, or perchance the next day, will he come with all who 


164 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


are faithful to him. Then shall I see the man who is in- 
deed my man, the man who fears not to die for his cause; 
and I tell ye he shall not be forgotten in the time of spoil. 
I have spoken, O chiefs, captains, soldiers, and people. 
Now go to your huts and make you ready for war.” 

There was a pause, and then one of the chiefs lifted 
his hand, and out rolled the royal salute, “ Koom /” It 
was a sign that the regiments accepted Ignosi as their 
king. Then they marched off in battalions. 

Half an hour afterwards we held a council of war, at 
which all the commanders of regiments were present. It 
was evident to us that before very long we should be at- 
tacked in overwhelming force. Indeed, from our point of 
vantage on the hill we could see troops mustering, and 
messengers going forth from Loo in every direction, doubt- 
less to summon regiments to the king’s assistance. We 
had on our side about twenty thousand men, composed of 
seven of the best regiments in the country. Twala had, 
so Infadoos and the chiefs calculated, at least thirty to 
thirty-five thousand on whom he could rely at present 
assembled in Loo, and they thought that by midday on the 
morrow he would be able to gather another five thousand 
or more to his aid. It was, of course, possible that some 
of his troops would desert and come over to us, but it was 
not a contingency that could be reckoned on. Meanwhile, 
it was clear that active preparations were being made to 
subdue us. Already strong bodies of armed men were 
patrolling round and round the foot of the hill, and there 
were other signs of a coming attack. 

Infadoos and the chiefs, however, were of opinion that 
no attack would take place that night, which would be 
devoted to preparation and to the removal by every possi- 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


165 


ble means of the moral effect produced upon the minds of 
the soldiery by the supposed magical darkening of the sun. 
The attack would be on the morrow, they said, and they 
proved to be right. 

Meanwhile, we set to work to strengthen the position as 
much as possible. Nearly the entire force was turned out, 
and in the two hours which yet remained to sundown won- 
ders were done. The paths up the hill — which was rather 
a sanitarium than a fortress, being used generally as the 
camping-place of regiments suffering from recent service in 
unhealthy portions of the country — were carefully blocked 
with masses of stones, and every other possible approach 
was made as impregnable as time would allow. Piles of 
boulders were collected at various spots to be rolled down 
upon an advancing enemy, stations were appointed to the 
different regiments, and every other preparation which our 
joint ingenuity could suggest was taken. 

Just before sundown we perceived a small company of 
men advancing towards us from the direction of Loo, one 
of whom bore a palm leaf in his hand as a sign that he 
came as a herald. 

As he came, Ignosi, Infadoos, one or two chiefs, and 
ourselves went down to the foot of the mountain to meet 
him. He was a gallant-looking fellow, with the regulation 
leopard-skin cloak. 

‘‘Greeting!” he cried, as he came near; “the king’s 
greeting to those who make unholy war against the king; 
the lion’s greeting to the jackals who snarl around his 
heels.” 

“ Speak,” I said. 

“ These are the king’s words. Surrender to the king’s 
mercy ere a worse thing befall ye. Already the shoulder 


166 


KiiTG Solomon’s mines. 


has been torn from the black bull, and the king drives him 
bleeding about the camp.” * 

“What are Twala’s terms?” I asked, for curiosity. 

“ His terms are merciful, worthy of a great king. These 
are the words of Twala, the one-eyed, the mighty, the hus- 
band of a thousand wives, lord of the Kukuanas, keeper of 
the great road (Solomon’s Road), beloved of the strange 
ones who sit in silence at the mountains yonder (the Three 
Witches), calf of the black cow, elephant whose tread 
shakes the earth, terror of the evil-doer, ostrich whose feet 
devour the desert, huge one, black one, wise one, king from 
generation to generation! these are the words of Twala: 
‘ I will have mercy and be satisfied with a little blood. 
One in every ten shall die, the rest shall go free; but 
the white man Incubu, who slew Scragga, my son, and 
Infadoos, my brother, who brews rebellion against me, 
these shall die by torture as an offering to the silent ones.’ 
Such are the merciful words of Twala.” 

After consulting with the others a little I answered him 
in a loud voice, so that the soldiers might hear, thus : 

“ Go back, thou dog, to Twala, who sent thee, and say 
that we, Ignosi, veritable king of the Kukuanas, Incubu, 
Bougwan, and Macumazahn, the wise white ones from the 
stars who make dark the sun, Infadoos, of the royal house, 
and the chiefs, captains, and people here gathered, make 
answer and say, ‘ That we will not surrender; that before 
the sun has twice gone down Twala’s corpse shall stiffen 
at Twala’s gate, and Ignosi, whose father Twala slew, shall 


* This cruel custom is not confined to the Kukuanas, but is by no means 
uncommon among African tribes on the occasion of the outbreak of war 
or any other important puWic event. — A. Q. 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


167 


reign in his stead.’ Now go, ere we whip thee away, and 
beware how ye lift a hand against such as we.” 

The herald laughed loud. “Ye frighten not men with 
such swelling words,” he cried out. “ Show yourselves as 
bold to-morrow, O ye who darken the sun. Be bold, fight, 
and be merry, before the crows pick your bones till they 
are whiter than your faces. Farewell; perhaps we may 
meet in the fight; wait for me, I pray, white men.” And 
with this shaft of sarcasm he retired, and almost immedi- 
ately the sun sank. 

That night was a busy one for us, for, as far as was pos- 
sible by the moonlight, all preparations for the morrow’s 
fight were continued. Messengers were constantly coming 
and going from the place where we sat in council. At 
last, about an hour after midnight, everything that could 
be done was done, and the camp, save for the occasional 
challenge of a sentry, sank into sleep. Sir Henry and I, 
accompanied by Ignosi and one of the chiefs, descended 
the hill and made the round of the vedettes. As we 
went, suddenly, from all sorts of unexpected places, spears 
gleamed out in the moonlight, only to vanish again as we 
uttered the password. It was clear to us that none were 
sleeping at their posts. Then we returned, picking our 
way through thousands of sleeping warriors, many of 
whom were taking their last earthly rest. 

The moonlight flickered along their spears, and played 
upon their features and made them ghastly; the chilly 
night wind tossed their tall and hearselike plumes. There 
they lay in wild confusion, with arms outstretched and 
twisted limbs; their stern, stalwart forms looking weird 
and unhuman in the moonlight. 

“How many of these do you suppose will be alive at 
this time to-morrow ?” asked Sir Henry. 


168 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


I shook my head and looked again at the sleeping men, 
and to my tired and yet excited imagination it seemed as 
though death had already touched them. My mind’s eye 
singled out those who were sealed to slaughter, and there 
rushed in upon my heart a great sense of the mystery of 
human life, and an overwhelming sorrow at its futility and 
sadness. To-night these thousands slept their healthy 
sleep; to-morrow they, and many others with them, our- 
selves perhaps among them, would be stiffening in the cold; 
their wives w'ould be widows, their children fatherless, and 
their place know them no more forever. Only the old moon 
would shine serenely on, the night wind would stir the 
grasses, and the wide earth would take its happy rest, even 
as it did seons before these were, and will do seons after 
they have been forgotten. 

Yet man dies not while the world, at once his mother 
and his monument, remains. His name is forgotten, in- 
deed, but the breath he breathed yet stirs the pine-tops on 
the mountains, the sound of the words he spoke yet echoes 
on through space ; the thoughts his brain gave birth to 
we have inherited to-day; his passions are our cause of 
life; the joys and sorrows that he felt are our familiar 
friends — the end from which he fled aghast will surely 
overtake us also. 

Truly the universe js full of ghosts; not sheeted, church- 
yard spectres, but the inextinguishable and immortal ele- 
ments of life, which, having once been, can never dity 
though they blend and change and change again for- 
ever. 

All sorts of reflections of this sort passed through my 
mind — for as I get older I regret to say that a detestable 
habit of thinking seems to be getting a hold of me — while 


KING Solomon's mines. 


169 


I stood and stared at those grim yet fantastic lines of war- 
riors sleeping, as their saying goes, upon their spears.” 

“ Curtis,” I said to Sir Henry, “ I am in a condition of 
pitiable funk.” 

Sir Henry stroked his yellow beard and laughed, as he 
answered : 

“I’ve heard you make that sort of remark before, 
Quatermain.” 

“Well, 1 mean it now. Do you know, I very much 
doubt if one of us will be alive to-morrow night. We 
shall be attacked in overwhelming force, and it is exceed- 
ingly doubtful if we can hold this place.” 

“ W e’ll give a good account of some of them, at any 
rate. Look here, Quatermain, the business is a nasty one, 
and one with which, properly speaking, we ought not to be 
mixed up ; but we are in for it, so we must make the best 
of it. Speaking personally, I had rather be killed fight- 
ing than any other way, and now that there seems little 
chance of finding my poor brother, it makes the idea easier 
to me. But fortune favors the brave, and we may suc- 
ceed. Anyway, the slaughter will be awful, and as we 
have a reputation to keep up, we shall have to be in the 
thick of it.” 

Sir Henry made this last remark in a mournful voice, 
but there was a gleam in his eye which belied it. I have 
a sort of idea that Sir Henry Curtis actually likes fight- 
ing. 

After this we went and slept for a couple of hours. 

Just about dawn we were awakened by Infadoos, who 
came to say that great activity was to be observed in Loo, 
and that parties of the king’s skirmishers were driving in 
our vedettes. 


170 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


We got up and dressed ourselves for the fray, each put° 
ting on his chain-armor shirt, for which at the present 
juncture we felt exceedingly thankful. Sir Henry went 
the whole length about the matter, and dressed himself 
like a native warrior. ‘‘ When you are in Kukuanaland, 
do as the Kukuanas do,” he remarked, as he drew the shin- 
ing steel over his broad shoulders, which it fitted like a 
glove. Nor did he stop there. At his request, Infadoos 
had provided him with a complete set of war uniform. 
Round his throat he fastened the leopard-skin cloak of a 
commanding officer, on his brows he bound the plume of 
black ostrich feathers worn only by generals of high rank, 
and round his centre a magnificent moocha of white ox- 
tails. A pair of sandals, a leglet of goat’s hair, a heavy 
battle-axe with a rhinoceros-horn handle, a round iron 
shield covered with white ox-hide, and the regulation 
number of tollas, or throwing-knives, made up his equip* 
ment, to which, however, he added his revolver. The dress 
was, no doubt, a savage one ; but I am bound to say I 
never saw a finer sight than Sir Henry Curtis presented in 
this guise. It showed off his magnificent physique to the 
greatest advantage, and when Ignosi arrived, presently, ar- 
rayed in similar costume, I thought to myself that I never 
before saw two such splendid men. As for Good and my- 
self, the chain armor did not suit us nearly so well. To 
begin with. Good insisted upon keeping on his trousers, 
and a stout, short gentleman with an eye-glass, and one 
half of his face shaved, arrayed in a mail shirt carefully 
tucked into a very seedy pair of corduroys, looks more 
striking than imposing. As for myself, my chain shirt 
being too big for me, I put it on over all my clothes, 
which caused it to bulge out in a somewhat ungainly 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


171 


fashion. I discarded my trousers, however, determined to 
go into battle with bare legs, in order to be the lighter in 
case it became necessary to retire quickly, retaining only 
my veldtschoons. This, a spear, a shield, which I did not 
know how to use, a couple of tollas, a revolver, and a huge 
plume, which I pinned into the top of my shooting-hat in 
order to give a bloodthirsty finish to my appearance, com- 
pleted my modest equipment. In addition to all these ar- 
ticles, of course we had our rifles, but as ammunition was 
scarce, and they would be useless in case of a charge, we 
had arranged to have them carried behind us by bearers. 

As soon as we had equipped ourselves we hastily swal- 
lowed some food, and then started out to see how things 
were progressing. At one point in the table-land of the 
mountain there was a little koppie of brown stone, which 
served for the double purpose of headquarters and a con- 
ning tower. Here we found Infadoos surrounded by his 
own regiment, the Grays, which was undoubtedly the 
finest in the Kukuana army, and the same which we had 
first seen at the outlying kraal. This regiment, now three 
thousand five hundred strong, was being held in reserve, 
and the men were lying down on the grass in companies, 
and watching the king’s forces creep out of Loo in long, 
ant-like columns. There seemed to be no end to those 
columns — three in all, and each numbering at least eleven 
or twelve thousand men. 

As soon as they were clear of the town, they formed up. 
Then one body marched off to the right, one to the left, 
and the third came slowly on towards us. 

‘‘ Ah,” said Infadoos, “ they are going to attack us on 
three sides at once.” 

This was rather serious news, for as our position on the 


112 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


top of the mountain, which was at least a mile and a half 
in circumference, was an extended one, it was important 
to us to concentrate our comparatively small defending 
force as much as possible. But, as it was impossible for us 
to dictate in what way we should be attacked, we had to 
make the best of it, and accordingly sent orders to the 
various regiments to prepare to receive the separate on- 
slaughts. 


CHAPTER XIII. 

V THE ATTACK. 

Slowly, and without the slightest appearance of haste 
or excitement, the th^ee columns crept on. When within 
about five hundred yards of us, the main or centre column 
halted at the root of a tongue of open plain which ran up 
into the hill, to enable the other two to circumvent our 
position, which was shaped more or less in the form of a 
horseshoe, the two points being towards the town of Loo, 
their object being, ncjhdoubt, that the threefold assault 
should be delivered simii^aneou'sly. 

‘‘ Oh, for a gatling !” groane^ Good, as he contemplated 
the serried phalanxes '!?pneath ' us. “I would clear the 
plain in twenty minute’^ 

‘‘We have not got one, so it is' no use yearning for it; 
but suppose you try a shot, Quatermain. See how near 
you can go to that tall fellow who appears to be in com- 
mand. Two to one you miss him, and an even sovereign, 
to be honestly paid if ever we get out of this, that you 
don’t drop the ball within ten yards.” 

This piqued me, so, loading the express with solid ball, 
I waited till my friend walked some ten yards out from 
his force, in order to get a better view of our position, ac- 
companied only by an orderly, and then lying down and 
resting the express upon a rock, I covered him. The rifle, 
like all expresses, was only sighted to three hundred and 
fifty yards, so, to allow for the drop in trajectory, I toek 


174 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


him half-way down the neck, which ought, I calculated, to 
find him in the chest. He stood quite still and gave me 
every opportunity, but whether it was the excitement or 
the wind, or the fact of the man being a long shot, I don’t 
know, but this was what happened. Getting dead on, as 
I thought, a fine sight, I pressed, and when the puff of 
smoke had cleared away I, to my disgust, saw my man 
standing unharmed, while his orderly, who was at least 
three paces to the left, was stretched upon the ground, ap- 
parently dead. Turning swiftly, the officer I had aimed 
at began to run towards his force, in evident alarm. 

“Bravo, Quatermain !” sang out Good; “you’ve fright- 
ened him.” 

This made me very angry, for if possible to avoid it, I 
hate to miss in public. When one can only do one thing 
well, one likes to keep up one’s reputation in that thing. 
Moved quite out of myself at my failure, I did a rash 
thing. Rapidly covering the general as he ran, I let drive 
with the second barrel. The poor man threw up his arms 
and fell forward on his face. This time I had made no 
mistake ; and — I say it as a proof of how little we think of 
others when our own pride or reputation are in question 
— I was brute enough to feel delighted at the sight. 

The regiments who had seen the feat cheered wildly at 
this exhibition of the white man’s magic, which they took 
as an omen of success, while the force to which the gen- 
eral had belonged — which, indeed, as we afterwards ascer- 
tained, he had commanded — began to fall back in confu- 
sion. Sir Henry and Good now took up their rifles and 
began to fire, the latter industriously “ browning ” the 
dense mass before him with a Winchester repeater, and I 
also had another shot or two, with the result that, so far 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


175 


as we could judge, we put some eight or ten men hors de 
combat before they got out of range. 

Just as we stopped firing there came an ominous roar 
from our far right, then a similar roar from our left. The 
two other divisions were engaging us. 

At the sound the mass of men before us opened out a 
little, and came on towards the hill up the spit of bare 
grass-land at a slow trot, singing a deep-throated song as 
they advanced. We kept up a steady fire from our rifles 
as they came, Ignosi joining in occasionally, and accounted 
for several men, but of course produced no more effect 
upon that mighty rush of armed humanity than he who 
throws pebbles does on the advancing wave. 

On they came, with a shout and the clashing of spears; 
now they were driving in the outposts we had placed 
among the rocks at the foot of the hill. After that the 
advance was a little slower, for though as yet we had of- 
fered no serious opposition, the attacking force had to 
come up hill, and came slowly to save their breath. Our 
first line of defence was about half-way up the side, our 
second fifty yards farther back, while our third occupied 
the edge of the plain. 

On they came, shouting their war-cry, “ Twala! Twala! 
ChieVe! ChieVcP'* (Twala! Twala! Smite! smite!). 

Ignosi I Ignosi! ChieVc! Chide V' answered our peo- 
ple. They were quite close now, and the tollas, or throw- 
ing-knives, began to flash backward and forward, and now 
with an awful yell the battle closed in. 

To and fro swayed the mass of struggling warriors, men 
falling thick as leaves in an autumn wind; but before 
long the superior weight of the attacking force began to 
tell, and our first line of defence was slowly pressed back, 


176 KING Solomon’s mines. 

till it merged into the second. Here the struggle was very 
fierce, but again our people were driven back and up, till 
at length, within twenty minutes of the commencement of 
the fight, our third line came into action. 

But by this time the assailants were much exhausted, 
and had, besides, lost many men killed and wounded, and to 
break through that third impenetrable hedge of spears 
proved beyond their powers. For a while the dense mass 
of struggling warriors swung backward and forward in 
the fierce ebb and fiow of battle, and the issue was doubt- 
ful. Sir Henry watched the desperate struggle with a 
kindling eye, and then without a word he rushed off, fol- 
lowed by Good, and fiung himself into the hottest of the 
fray. As for myself, I stopped where I was. 

The soldiers taught sight of his tall form as he plunged 
into the battle, an^, there rose a cry of — 

Nanzia Incuhu P^ (Here ;is the Elephant !) “ ChieUI 

Chidir * 

From that moment the issue was no longer in doubt. 
Inch by inch, fighting with desperate gallantry, the attack- 
ing force was pressed back down the hillside, till at last it 
retreated upon its reserves in something like confusion. 
At that moment, too, a messenger arrived to say that the 
left attack had been repulsed, and I was just beginning 
to congratulate myself that the affair was over for the 
present, when, to our horror, we perceived our men who 
had been engaged in the right defence being driven tow- 
ards us across the plain, followed by swarms of the enemy, 
who had evidently succeeded at this point. 

Ignosi, who was standing by me, took in the situation 
at a glance, and issued a rapid order. Instantly the re- 
serve regiment round us (the Grays) extended itself. 


'Kma Solomon’s mines. 


177 


Again Ignosi gave a word of command, which was taken 
up and repeated by the captains, and in another second, 
to my intense disgust, I found myself involved in a furious 
onslaught upon the advancing foe. Getting as much as I 
could behind Ignosi’s huge frame, I made the best of a bad 
job, and toddled along to be killed, as though I liked it. 
In a minute or two — the time seemed all too short to me — 
we were plunging through the flying groups of our men, 
who at once began to re-form behind us, and then I am 
sure I do not know what happened. All I can remember 
is a dreadful rolling noise of the meeting of shields, and 
the sudden apparition of a huge ruffian, whose eyes seemed 
literally to be starting out of his head, making straight at 
me with a bloody spear. But — I say it with pride — I rose 
to the occasion. It was an occasion before which most 
people would have collapsed once and for all. Seeing 
that if I stood where I was I must be done for, I, as the 
horrid apparition came, flung myself down in front of him 
so cleverly that, being unable to stop himself, he took a 
header right over my prostrate form. Before he could 
rise again I had risen and settled the matter from behind 
with my revolver. 

Shortly after this somebody knocked me down, and I 
;?^ember no more of the charge. 

When I came to I found myself back at the koppie, 
with Good bending over me with some water in a gourd. 

‘‘ How do you feel, old fellow?” he asked, anxiously. 

I got up and shook myself before answering. 

‘‘ Pretty well, thank you,” I answered. 

‘‘ Thank Heaven ! when I saw them carry you in I felt 
quite sick; I thought you were done for.” 

“ Not this time, my boy. I fancy I only got a rap on 
12 


1V8 KING Solomon’s mines. 

the head, which knocked me out of time. How has it 
ended ?” 

“ They are repulsed at every point for the time. The 
loss is dreadfully heavy; we have lost quite two thousand 
killed and wounded, and they must have lost three. Look, 
there’s a sight !” and he pointed to long lines of men ad- 
vancing by fours. In the centre of, and being borne by, 
each group of four was a kind of hide tray, of which a 
Kukuana force always carried a quantity, with a loop for 
a handle at each corner. On these trays — and their num- 
ber seemed endless — lay wounded men, who as they ar- 
rived were hastily examined by the medicine-men, of 
whom ten were attached to each regiment. If the wound 
Was not of a fatal character the sufferer was taken away 
and attended to as carefully as circumstances would allow. 
But if, on the other hand, the wounded man’s condition 
was hopeless, what followed was very dreadful, though 
doubtless it was the truest mercy. One of the doctors, 
under pretence of carrying out an examination, swiftly 
opened an artery with a sharp knife, and in a minute or 
two the sufferer expired painlessly. There were many 
cases that day in which this was done. In fact, it was 
done in most cases when the wound was in the body, for 
the gash made by the entry of the enormously broad spears 
used by the Kukuanas generally rendered recovery hope- 
less. In most cases the sufferers were already unconscious, 
and in others the fatal ‘‘ nick ” of the artery was done so 
swiftly and painlessly that they did not seem to notice it. 
Still it was a ghastly sight, and one from which we were 
glad to escape; indeed, I never remember one which af- 
fected me more than seeing those gallant soldiers thus 
put out of pain by the red-handed medicine-men, except. 


KING Solomon’s mines. 179 

indeed, on an occasion when, after an attack, I saw a force 
©f Swazis burying their hopelessly wounded alive. 

Hurrying from this dreadful scene to the farther side of 
the koppie, we found Sir Henry (who still held a bloody 
battle-axe in his hand), Ignosi, Infadoos, and one or two 
of the chiefs in deep consultation. 

“ Thank heavens, here you are, Quatermain ! I can’t 
make out what Ignosi wants to do. It seems that, though 
we have beaten off the attack, Twala is now receiving 
large reinforcements, and is showing a disposition to in- 
vest us, with a view of starving us out.” 

“ That’s awkward.” 

“Yes ; especially as Infadoos says that the water sup- 
ply has given out.” 

“My lord, that is so,” said Infadoos; “the spring can- 
not supply the wants of so great a multitude, and is fail- 
ing rapidly. Before night we shall all be thirsty. Listen, 
Macumazahn. Thou art wise, and hast doubtless seen 
many wars in the lands from whence thou earnest — that is 
if, indeed, they make wars in the stars. Now tell us, what 
shall we do? Twala has brought up many fresh men to 
take the place of those who have fallen. But Twala has 
learned a lesson ; the hawk did not think to find the heron 
ready; but our beak has pierced his breast; he will not 
strike at us again. We, too, are wounded, and he will 
wait for us to die ; he will wind himself round us like a 
snake round a buck, and fight the fight of ‘ sit down.’ ” 

“ I hear you,” I said. 

“ So, Macumazahn, thou seest we have no water here, 
and but a little food, and we must choose between these 
three things — to languish like a starving lion in his den, 
or to strive to break away towards the north, or ” — and 


180 


KINa SOLOMON^S MINES. 


here he rose and pointed towards the dense mass of our 
foes — ‘‘to launch ourselves straight at Twala’s throat. 
Incubu, the great warrior — for to-day he fought like a 
buffalo in a net, and Twala’s soldiers went down before 
his axe like corn before the hail; with these eyes I saw it 
— Incubu says ‘charge;’ but the Elephant is ever prone 
to charge. Now what says Macumazahn, the wily old fox, 
who has seen much and loves to bite his enemy from be- 
hind ? The last word is in Ignosi, the king, for it ‘3 a 
king’s right to speak of war; but let us hear thy voice, 
O Macumazahn, who watchest by night, and the voice too 
of him of the transparent eye.” 

“ What sayest thou, Ignosi ?” I asked. 

“Nay, my father,” answered our quondam servant, who 
now, clad as he was in the full panoply of savage war, 
looked every inch a warrior king, “ do thou speak, and let 
me, who am but a child in wisdom beside thee, hearken to 
thy words.” 

Thus abjured, I, after taking hasty counsel with Good 
and Sir Henry, delivered my opinion briefly to the effect 
that, being trapped, our best chance, especially in view of 
the failure of our water supply, was to initiate an attack 
upon Twala’s forces, and then I recommended that the at- 
tack should be delivered at once, “ before our wounds 
grew stiff,” and also before the sight of Twala’s over- 
powering force caused the hearts of our soldiers “ to wax 
small like fat before a fire.” Otherwise, I pointed out, 
some of the captains might change their minds, and, mak- 
ing peace with Twala, desert to him, or even betray us into 
his hands. 

This expression of opinion seemed, on the whole, to be 
favorably received ; indeed, among the Kukuanas my utter- 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


181 


ances met with a respect which has never been accorded to 
them before or since. But the real decision as to our 
course lay with Ignosi, who, since he had been recognized 
as rightful king, could exercise the almost unbounded 
rights of sovereignty, including, of course, the final de- 
cision on matters of generalship, and it was to him that 
all eyes were now turned. 

At length, after a pause, during which he appeared to 
be thinking deeply, he spoke : 

‘‘ Incubu, Macumazahn, and Bougwan, brave white 
men, and my friends; Infadoos, my uncle, and chiefs; my 
heart is fixed. I will strike at Twala this day, and set 
my fortunes on the blow, ay, and my life; my life and 
your lives also. Listen : thus will I strike. Ye see 
how the hill curves round like the half-moon, and how 
the plain runs like a green tongue towards us within the 
curve ?” 

“We see,” I answered. 

“ Good; it is now midday, and the men eat and rest af- 
ter the toil of battle. When the sun has turned and 
travelled a little way towards the dark, let thy regiment, 
my uncle, advance with one other down to the green 
tongue. And it shall be that when Twala sees it he shall 
hurl his force at it to crush it. But the spot is narrow, 
and the regiments can come against thee one at a time 
only; so shall they be destroyed one by one, and the eyes 
of all Twala’s army shall be fixed upon a struggle the like 
of which has not been seen by living man. And with thee, 
my uncle, shall go Incubu, my friend, that when Twala sees 
his battle-axe flashing in the first rank of the ‘ Grays ’ his 
heart may grow faint. And I will come with the second 
regiment, that which follows thee, so that if ye are de- 


182 


Ring Solomon’s mines. 


stroyed, as it may happen, there may yet be a king left 
to fight for; and with me shall come Macumazahn the 
wise.” 

“ It is well, O King,” said Infadoos, apparently contem- 
plating the certainty of the complete annihilation of his 
regiment with perfect calmness. Truly these Kukiianas 
are a wonderful people. Death has no terrors for them 
when it is incurred in the course of duty. 

“ And while the eyes of the multitude of Twala’s regi- 
ments are thus fixed upon the fight,” went on Ignosi, “ be- 
hold, one third of the men who are left alive to us ” (i. e.y 
about six thousand) “ shall creep along the right horn of the 
hill and fall upon the left flank of Twala’s force, and one 
third shall creep along the left horn and fall upon Twala’s 
right flank. And when I see that the horns are ready to toss 
Twala, then will I, with the men who are left to me, cSaarge 
home in Twala’s face, and if fortune goes with us the day 
will be ours, and before Night drives her horses from the 
mountains to the mountains we shall sit in peace at Loo. 
And now let us eat and make ready; and, Infadoos, do 
thou prepare, that the plan be carried out; and stay, let 
my white father, Bougwan, go with the right horn, that his 
shining eye may give courage to the men.” 

The arrangements for the attack thus briefly indicated 
were set in motion with a rapidity that spoke well for the 
perfection of the Kukuana military system. Within little 
more than an hour rations had been served out to the men 
and devoured, the three divisions were formed, the plan 
of attack explained to the leaders, and the whole force, 
with the exception of a guard left with the wounded, now 
numbering about eighteen thousand men in all, was ready 
to be put in motion. 


KING Solomon’s mines. 183 

Presently Good came up and sliook hands with Sir 
Henry and myself. 

“ Good-bye, you fellows,” he said, I am off with the 
right wing, according to orders; and so I have come to 
shake hands in case we should not meet again, you know,” 
he added, significantly. 

W e shook hands in silence, and not without the exhibi- 
tion of as much emotion as Englishmen are wont to show. 

‘‘ It is a queer business,” said Sir Henry, his deep voice 
shaking a little, “ and I confess I never expect to see to- 
morrow’s sun. As far as I can make out, the Grays, with 
whom I am to go, are to fight until they are wiped out in 
order to enable the wings to slip round unawares and out- 
flank Twala. Well, so be it; at any rate, it will be a man’s 
death ! Good-bye, old fellow. God bless you ! I hope 
you will pull through and live to collar the diamonds ; 
but if you do, take my advice and don’t have anything 
more to do with pretenders !” 

In another second Good had wrung us both by the hand 
and gone; and then Infadoos came up and led off Sir Henry 
to his place in the forefront of the Grays, while, with many 
misgivings, I departed with Ignosi to my station in the 
second attacking regiment. 


CHAPTEK XIV. 

THE LAST STAND OP THE GRAYS. 

In a few more minutes the regiments destined to carry 
out the flanking movements had tramped off in silence, 
keeping carefully under the lee of the rising ground in 
order to conceal the movement from the keen eyes of 
Twala’s scouts. 

Half an hour or more was allowed to elapse between 
the setting-out of the horns or wings of the army before 
any movement was made by the Grays and the support- 
ing regiments, known as the Buffaloes, which formed its 
chest, and which were destined to bear the brunt of the 
battle. 

Both of these regiments were almost perfectly fresh, 
and of full strength, the Grays having been in reserve in 
the morning, and having lost but a small number of men 
in sweeping back that part of the attack which had proved 
successful in breaking the line of defence on the occasion 
when I charged with them and got knocked silly for my 
pains. As for the Buffaloes, they had formed the third 
line of defence on the left, and as the attacking force at 
that point had not succeeded in breaking through the sec- 
ond, had scarcely come into action at all. 

Infadoos, who was a wary old general, and knew the 
absolute importance of keeping up the spirits of his men 
on the eve of such a desperate encounter, employed the 
pause in addressing his own regiment, the Grays, in 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


185 


poetical language; in explaining to them the honor that 
they were receiving in being put thus in the forefront of 
the battle, and in having the great white warrior from the 
stars to fight with them in their ranks, and in promising 
large rewards of cattle and promotion to all who survived 
in the event of Ignosi’s arms being successful. 

I looked down the long lines of waving black plumes 
and stern faces beneath them, and sighed to think that 
within one short hour most, if not all, of those magnifi- 
cent veteran warriors, not a man of whom was under forty 
years of age, would be laid dead or dying in the dust. It 
could not be otherwise; they were being condemned, with 
that wise recklessness of human life that marks the great 
general, and often saves his forces and attains his ends, to 
certain slaughter, in order to give the cause and the re- 
mainder of the army a chance of success. They were 
foredoomed to die, and they knew it. It was to be their 
task to engage regiment after regiment of Twala’s army 
on the narrow strip of green beneath us, till they were ex- 
terminated, or till the wings found a favorable opportuni- 
ty for their onslaught. And yet they never hesitated, 
nor could I detect a sign of fear upon the face of a single 
warrior. There they were — going to certain death, about 
to quit the blessed light of day forever, and yet able to 
contemplate their doom without a tremor. I could not, 
even at that moment, help contrasting their state of mind 
with my owm, which was far from comfortable, and breath- 
ing a sigh of envy and admiration. Never before had I 
seen such an absolute devotion to the idea of duty, and 
such a complete indifference to its bitter fruits. 

‘‘ Behold your king !” ended old Infadoos, pointing to 
Ignosi; “go fight and fall for him, as is the duty of brave 


186 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


men, and cursed and shameful forever be the name of him 
who shrinks from death for his king, or who turns his 
back to his enemy. Behold your king ! chiefs, captains, 
and soldiers ; now do your homage to the sacred snake, 
and then follow on, that Incubu and I may show ye the 
road to the heart of Twala’s forces.” 

There was a moment’s pause, then suddenly there rose 
from the serried phalanxes before us a murmur, like the 
distant whisper of the sea, caused by the gentle tapping 
of the handles of six thousand spears against their holders’ 
shields. Slowly it swelled, till its growing volume deep- 
ened and widened into a roar of rolling noise, that echoed 
like thunder against the mountains, and filled the air wuth 
heavy waves of sound. Then it decreased and slowly 
died away into nothing, and suddenly out crashed the 
royal salute. 

Ignosi, I thought to myself, might well be a proud man 
that day, for no Roman emperor ever had such a saluta- 
tion from gladiators about to die.” 

Ignosi acknowledged this magnificent act of homage by 
lifting his battle-axe, and then the Grays filed off in a 
triple-line formation, each line containing about one thou- 
sand fighting men, exclusive of officers. When the last line 
had gone some five hundred yards, Ignosi put himself at 
the head of the Buffaloes, which regiment was drawn up 
in a similar three-line formation, and gave the word to 
march, and off we Tvent, I, needless to say, uttering the 
most heartfelt prayers that I might come out of that job 
wdth a whole skin. Many a queer position have I found 
myself in, but never before in one quite so unpleasant as 
the present, or one in which my chance of coming off saf^ 
was so small. 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


187 


By the time that we reached the edge of the plateau the 
Grays were already half-way down the slope ending in the 
tongue of grass-land that ran up into the bend of the moun- 
tain, something as the frog of a horse’s foot runs up into 
the shoe. The excitement in Twala’s camp on the plain 
beyond was very great, and regiment after regiment was 
starting forward at a long swinging trot in order to reach 
the root of the tongue of land before the attacking force 
could emerge into the plain of Loo„ 

This tongue of land, which was some three hundred 
yards in depth, was, even at its root or widest part, not 
more than three hundred and fifty paces across, while at 
its tip it scarcely measured ninety. The Grays, who, in 
passing down the side of the hill and on to the tip of the 
tongue, had formed in column, on reaching the spot where 
it broadened out again reassumed their triple-line forma- 
tion and halted dead. 

Then we — that is, the Buffaloes — moved down the tip 
of the tongue and took our stand in reserve, about one hun- 
dred yards behind the last line of the Grays, and on slight- 
ly higher ground. Meanwhile we had leisure to observe 
Twala’s entire force, which had evidently been reinforced 
since the morning attack, and could not now, notwithstand- 
ing their losses, number less than forty thousand, moving 
swiftly up towards us. But as they drew near the root of 
the tongue they hesitated, having discovered that only one 
regiment could advance into the gorge at a time, and that 
there, some seventy yards from the mouth of it, unassaila- 
ble except in front, on account of the high walls of boul- 
der-strewn ground on either side, stood the famous regi- 
ment of Grays, the pride and glory of the Kukuana army, 
teady to hold the way against their forces as the three 


188 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


Romans once held the bridge against thousands. They 
hesitated, and finally stopped their advance; there was no 
eagerness to cross spears with those three lines of grim 
warriors who stood so firm and ready. Presently, however, 
a tall general, with the customary head-dress of nodding 
ostrich plumes, came running up, attended by a group of 
chiefs and orderlies, being, I thought, none other than 
Twala himself, and gave an order, and the first regiment 
raised a shout, and charged up towards the Grays, who re- 
mained perfectly still and silent until the attacking troops 
were within forty yards, and a volley of tollas, or throw- 
ing-knives, came rattling among their ranks. 

Then suddenly, with a bound and a roar, they sprang 
forward with uplifted spears, and the two regiments met 
in deadly strife. Next second the roll of the meeting 
shields came to our ears like the sound of thunder, and 
the whole plain seemed to be alive with flashes of light 
reflected from the stabbing spears. To and fro swung 
the heaving mass of struggling, stabbing humanity, but 
not for long. Suddenly the attacking lines seemed to grow 
thinner, and then with a slow, long heave the Grays passed 
over them, just as a great wave heaves up and passes over 
a sunken ridge. It Tvas done ; that regiment was com- 
pletely destroyed, but the Grays had but two lines left 
now; a third of their number were dead. 

Closing up shoulder to sboulder once more, they halted 
in silence and awaited attack; and I was rejoiced to catch 
sight of Sir Henry’s yellow beard as he moved to and fro, 
arranging the ranks. So he was yet alive ! 

Meanwhile we moved up on to the ground of the en- 
counter, which was cumbered by about four thousand pros- 
trate human beings, dead, dying, and wounded, and literally 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


189 


stained red with blood. Ignosi issued an order, which was 
rapidly passed down the ranks, to the effect that none of 
the enemy’s wounded were to be killed, and, so far as we 
could see, this order was scrupulously carried out. It would 
have been a shocking sight, if we had had time to think of it. 

But now a second regiment, distinguished by white 
plumes, kilts, and shields, was moving up to the attack of 
the two thousand remaining Grays, who stood waiting in 
the same ominous silence as before, till the foe was within 
forty yards or so, when they hurled themselves with irre- 
sistible force upon them. Again there came the awful 
roll of the meeting shields, and as we watched, the grim 
tragedy repeated itself. But this time the issue was left 
longer in doubt; indeed, it seemed for a while almost im- 
possible that the Grays should again prevail. The at- 
tacking regiment, which was one formed of young men, 
fought with the utmost fury, and at first seemed by sheer 
weight to be driving the veterans back. The slaughter 
was something awful, hundreds falling every minute; and 
from among the shouts of the warriors and the groans of 
the dying, set to the clashing music of meeting spears, 
came a continuous hissing undertone of “ S’gee^ s^gee^'‘ the 
note of triumph of each victor as he passed his spear through 
and through the body of his fallen foe. 

But perfect discipline and steady and unchanging valor 
can do wonders, and one veteran soldier is worth two 
young ones, as soon became apparent in the present case. 
For just as we thought that it was all up with the Grays, 
and were preparing to take their place so soon as they 
made room by being destroyed, I heard Sir Henry’s deep 
voice ringing out above the din, and caught a glimpse of 
his circling battle-axe as he waved it high above his plumes. 


190 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


Then came a change; the Grays ceased to give; they stood 
still as a rock, against which the furious waves of spear- 
men broke again and again, only to recoil. Presently they 
began to move again — forward this time; as they had no 
firearms there was no smoke, so we could see it all. An- 
other minute and the onslaught grew fainter. 

‘‘Ah, they are men indeed; they will conquer again,” 
called out Ignosi, who was grinding his teeth with ex- 
citement at ray side. “ See, it is done !” 

Suddenly, like puffs of smoke from the mouth of a can- 
non, the attacking regiment broke away in flying groups, 
their white head-dresses streaming behind them in the 
wind, and left their opponents victors, indeed, but, alas! no 
more a regiment. Of the gallant triple line, which, forty 
minutes before had gone into action three thousand strong, 
there remained at most some six hundred blood-bespattered 
men; the rest were under foot. And yet they cheered and 
waved their spears in triumph, and then, instead of falling 
back upon us as we expected, they ran forward, for a hun- 
dred yards or so, after the flying groups of foeraen, took 
possession of a gently rising knoll of ground, and, resum- 
ing the old triple formation, formed a threefold ring around 
it. And then, thanks be to God, standing on the top of a 
mound for a minute, I saw Sir Henry, apparently unharmed, 
and with him our old friend Infadoos. Then Twala’s 
regiments rolled down upon the doomed band, and once 
more the battle closed in. 

As those who read this history will probably long ago 
have gathered, I am, to be honest, a bit of a coward, and 
certainly in no way given to fighting, though, somehow, it 
has often been my lot to get into unpleasant positions, and 
to be obliged to shed man’s blood. But I have always hated 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


191 


it, and kept my own blood as undiminished in quantity as 
possible, sometimes by a judicious use of my heels. At this 
moment, however, for the first time in my life, I felt my bos- 
om burn with martial ardor. Warlike fragments from the 
“ Ingoldsby Legends,” together with numbers of sangui- 
nary verses from the Old Testament, sprang up in my brain 
like mushrooms in the dark; my blood, which hitherto had 
been half-frozen with horror, went beating through my 
veins, and there came upon me a savage desire to kill and 
spare not. I glanced round at the serried ranks of warriors 
behind us, and somehow, all in an instant, began to won- 
der if my face looked like theirs. There they stood, their 
heads craned forward over their shields, the hands twitch- 
ing, the lips apart, the fierce features instinct with the hun- 
gry lust of battle, and in the eyes a look like the glare 
of a bloodhound when he sights his quarry. 

Only Ignosi’s heart seemed, to judge from his compara^ 
tive self-possession, to all appearance, to beat as calmly as 
ever beneath his leopard-skin cloak, though even he still 
kept on grinding his teeth. I could stand it no longer. 

“Are we to stand here till we put out roots, Umbopa — 
Ignosi, I mean — while Twala swallows our brothers yon- 
der ?” I asked. 

“Nay, Macumazahn,” was the answer; “see, now is the 
ripe moment; let us pluck it.” 

As he spoke a fresh regiment rushed past the ring upon 
the little mound, and, wheeling round, attacked it from the 
hither side. 

Then, lifting his battle-axe, Ignosi gave the signal to ad 
vance, and, raising the Kukuana battle-cry, the Buffaloes 
charged home with a rush like the rush of the sea. 

What followed immediately on this it is out of my 


192 


KING SOLOMON S MINKS. 


power to tell. All I can remember is a wild yet ordered 
rushing, that seemed to shake the ground; a sudden change 
of front and forming up on the part of the regiment 
against which the charge was directed; then an awful 
shock, a dull roar of voices, and a continuous flashing of 
spears, seen through a red mist of blood. 

When my mind cleared I found myself standing inside 
the remnant of the Grays near the top of the mound, and 
just behind no less a person than Sir Henry himself. How 
I got there I had, at the moment, no idea, but Sir Henry 
afterwards told me that I was borne up by the first furi- 
ous charge of the Buffaloes almost to his feet, and then 
left, as they in turn were pressed back. Thereon he dashed 
out of the circle and dragged me into it. 

As for the fight that followed, who can describe it? 
Again and again the multitudes surged up against our 
momentarily lessening^ circle, and again and again we beat 
them back. 

“ The stubborn spearsmen still made good ■ 

The dark impenetrable wood ; 

Each stepping where his comrade stood 
The instant that he fell,” 

as I think the ‘‘ Ingoldsby Legends ” beautifully puts it. 

It was a splendid thing to see those brave battalions 
come on time after time over the barriers of their dead, 
sometimes holding corpses before them to receive our spear- 
thrusts, only to leave their own corpses to swell the rising 
piles. It was a gallant sight to see that sturdy old war- 
rior, Infadoos, as cool as though he were on parade, shout- 
ing out orders, taunts, and even jests, to keep up the spirit 
of his few remaining men, and then, as each charge rolled 
up, stepping forward to wherever the fighting was thick- 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


193 


est, to bear his share in repelling it. And yet more gal- 
lant was the vision of Sir Henry, whose ostrich plumes had 
been shorn off by a spear-stroke, so that his long yellow 
hair streamed out in the breeze behind him. There he 
stood, the great Dane, for he was nothing else, his hands, his 
axe, and his armor all red with blood, and none could live 
before his stroke. Time after time I saw it come sweeping 
down, as some great warrior ventured to give him battle, 
and as he struck he shouted, ‘‘ Oh-hoy! 0-hoy P"' like his 
Bersekir forefathers, and the blow went crashing through 
shield and spear, through head-dress, hair, and skull, till 
at last none would of their own will come near the great 
white “tagati” (wizard), who killed and failed not. 

But suddenly there rose a cry of “ Twala, y’ Twala^'^ 
and out of the press sprang forward none other than the 
gigantic one-eyed king himself, also armed with battle- 
axe and shield, and clad in chain armor. 

Where art thou, Incubu, thou white man, who slew 
Scragga, my son — see if thou canst kill me !” he shouted, 
and at the same time hurled a tolla straight at Sir Henry, 
who, fortunately, saw it coming, and caught it on his shield, 
which transfixed it, remaining wedged in the iron plate be- 
hind the hide. 

Then with a cry, Twala sprang forward straight at him, 
and with his battle-axe struck him such a blow upon the 
shield that the mere force and shock of it brought Sir 
Henry, strong man as he was, down upon his knees. 

But at the time the matter went no further, for at that 
instant there rose from the regiments pressing round us 
something like a shout of dismay, and on looking up I saw 
the cause. 

To the right and to the left the plain was alive with 
13 


194 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


the plumes of charging warriors. The outflanking squad- 
rons had come to our relief. The time could not have 
been better chosen. All Twala’s army had, as Ignosi had 
predicted would be the case, fixed their attention on the 
bloody struggle which was raging round the remnant of 
the Grays and the Buffaloes, who were now carrying on a 
battle of their own at a little distance, which two regi- 
ments had formed the chest of our army. It was not un- 
til the horns were about to close upon them that they had 
dreamed of their approach. And now, before they could 
even assume a proper formation for defence, the outflank- 
ing Impis had leaped, like greyhounds, on their flanks. 

In five minutes the fate of the battle was decided. 
Taken on both fianks, and dismayed by the awful slaughter 
infiicted upon them by the Grays and Buffaloes, Twala’s 
regiments broke into flight, and soon the whole plain be- 
tween us and Loo was scattered with groups of flying sol- 
diers, making good their retreat. As for the forces that 
had so recently surrounded us and the Buffaloes, they 
melted away as though by magic, and presently we were 
left standing there like a rock from which the sea has re- 
treated. But what a sight it was ! Around us the dead 
and dying lay in heaped-up masses, and of the gallant 
Grays there remained alive but ninety-five men. More 
than two thousand nine hundred had fallen in this one 
regiment, most of them never to rise again. 

‘‘ Men,” said Infadoos, calmly, as between the intervals 
of binding up a wound in his arm he surveyed what re- 
mained to him of his corps, ‘‘ ye have kept up the repu- 
tation of your regiment, and this day’s fighting will be 
spoken of by your children’s children.” Then he turned 
round and shook Sir Henry Curtis by the hand. “ Thou 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


195 


art a great man, Incubu,” he said, simply; “ I have lived a 
long life among warriors, and known many a brave one, 
yet have I never seen a man like thee.” 

At this moment the Buffaloes began to march past our 
position on the road to Loo, and as they did so a message 
was brought to us from Ignosi requesting Infadoos, Sir 
Henry, and myself to join him. Accordingly, orders hav- 
ing been issued to the remaining ninety men of the Grays 
to employ themselves in collecting the wounded, we joined 
Ignosi, who informed us that he was pressing on to Loo to 
complete the victory by capturing Twala, if that should 
be possible. Before we had gone far we suddenly dis- 
covered the figure of Good sitting on an ant-heap about 
one hundred paces from us. Close beside him was the 
body of a Kukuana. 

“He must be wounded,” said Sir Henry, anxiously. 
As he made the remark, an untoward thing happened. The 
dead body of the Kukuana soldier, or rather what had 
appeared to be his dead body, suddenly sprang up, knocked 
Good head over heels off the ant-heap, and began to spear 
him. We rushed forward in terror, and as we drew near 
we saw the brawny warrior making dig aft6r dig at the 
prostrate Good, who at each prod jerked all his limbs into 
the air. Seeing us coming, the Kukuana gave one final 
most vicious dig, and with a shout of “ Take that, wizard,” 
bolted off. Good did not move, and we concluded that 
our poor comrade was done for. Sadly we came towards 
him, and were indeed astonished to find him pale and faint 
indeed, but with a serene smile upon his face, and his eye- 
glass still fixed in his eye. 

“ Capital armor this,” he murmured, on catching sight 
of our faces bending over him. “ How sold he must have 


196 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


been,” and then he fainted. On examination we discor- 
ered that he had been seriously wounded in the leg by a 
tolla in the course of the pursuit, but that the chain-armor 
had prevented his last assailant’s spear from doing any- 
thing more than bruise him badly. It was a merciful es- 
cape. As nothing could be done for him at the moment, 
he was placed on one of the wicker shields used for the 
wounded, and carried along with us. 

On arriving before the nearest gate of Loo we found 
one of our regiments watching it in obedience to orders 
received from Ignosi. The remaining regiments were in 
the same way watching the other exits to the town. The 
officer in command of this regiment coming up, saluted Ig- 
nosi as king, and informed him that Twala’s army had 
taken refuge in the town, whither Twala himself had also 
escaped, but that he thought they were thoroughly de- 
moralized, and would surrender. Thereupon Ignosi, after 
taking counsel with us, sent forward heralds to each gate 
ordering the defenders to open, and promising on his royal 
word life and forgiveness to every soldier who laid down 
his arms. The message was not without its effect. Pres- 
ently, amid the shouts and cheers of the Buffaloes, the 
bridge was dropped across the fosse, and the gates upon 
the farther side flung open. 

Taking due precautions against treachery, we marched 
on into the town. All along the roadways stood dejected 
warriors, their heads drooping and their shields and spears 
at their feet, who, as Ignosi passed, saluted him as king. 
On we marched, straight to Twala’s kraal. When we 
reached the great space, where a day or two previously 
we had seen the review and the witch-hunt, we found it 
deserted. N^o, not quite deserted, for there, on the farther 


KING Solomon’s mines. 197 

side, in front of his hut, sat Twala himself, with but one 
attendant — Gagool. 

It was a melancholy sight to see him seated there, his 
battle-axe and shield by his side, his chin upon his mailed 
breast, with but one old crone for companion, and, notwith- 
standing his cruelties and misdeeds, a pang of compassion 
shot through me as I saw him thus “ fallen from his high 
estate.” Not a soldier of all his armies, not a courtier out 
of the hundreds who had cringed round him, not even a 
solitary wife, remained to share his fate or halve the bit- 
terness of his fall. Poor savage ! he was learning the les- 
son that fate teaches to most who live long enough, that 
the eyes of mankind are blind to the discredited, and that 
he who is defenceless and fallen finds few friends and little 
mercy. Nor, indeed, in this case did he deserve any. 

Filing through the kraal gate, we marched straight 
Across the open space to where the ex-king sat. When 
within about fifty yards the regiment was halted, and, ac- 
companied only by a small guard, we advanced towards 
him, Gagool reviling us bitterly as we came. As we drew 
near, Twala, for the first time, lifted up his plumed head, 
and fixed his one eye, which seemed to fiash with sup- 
pressed fury almost as brightly as the great diadem bound 
round his forehead, upon his successful rival — Ignosi. 

“Hail, O king!” he said, with bitter mockery; “thou 
who hast eaten of my bread, and now by the aid of the 
white man’s magic hast seduced my regiments and defeated 
mine army, hail ! what fate hast thou for me, O king ?” 

“ The fate thou gavest to my father, whose throne thou 
hast sat on these many years 1” was the stern answer. 

“It is well. I will show thee how to die, that thou 
mayest remember it against thine own time. See, the sun 


198 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


sinks in blood,” and he pointed with his red battle-axe 
towards the fiery orb now going down ; it is well that 
my sun should sink with it. And now, O king ! I am 
ready to die, but I crave the boon of the Kukuana royal 
house * to die fighting. Thou canst not refuse it, or even 
those cowards who fled to-day will hold thee shamed.” 

“It is granted. Choose — with whom wilt thou fight? 
Myself, I cannot fight with thee, for the king fights not 
except in war.” 

Twala’s sombre eye ran up and down our ranks, and I 
felt, as for a moment it rested on myself, that the position 
had developed a new horror. What if he chose to begin 
by fighting me? What chance should I have against a 
desperate savage six feet five high, and broad in propor- 
tion ? I might as well commit suicide at once. Hastily I 
made up my mind to decline the combat, even if I were 
hooted out of Kukuanaland as a consequence. It is, I 
think, better to be hooted than to be quartered with a 
battle-axe. 

Presently he spoke. 

“ Incubu, what sayest thou, shall we end what we began 
to-day, or shall I call thee coward, white — even to the 
liver ?” 

“ Nay,” interposed Ignosi, hastily; “ thou shalt not fight 
with Incubu.” 

“Not if he is afraid,” said Twala. 

Unfortunately Sir Henry understood this remark, and 
the blood flamed up into his cheeks. 

♦ It is a law among the Kukuanas that no man of the royal blood can 
be put to death unless by his own consent, which is, however, never re- 
fused. He is allowed to choose a succession of antagonists, to be approved 
by the king, with whom he fights until one of them kills him. 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


199 


“I will fight him,” he said; ‘‘he shall see if I am 
afraid.” 

“For God’s sake,” I entreated, “don’t risk your life 
against that of a desperate man. Anybody who saw you 
to-day will know that you are not a coward.” 

“I will fight him,” was the sullen answer. “No living 
man shall call ‘me a coward. I am ready now !” and he 
stepped forward and lifted his axe. 

I wrung my hands over this absurd piece of Quixotism; 
but if he was determined on fighting, of course I could 
not stop him. 

“ Fight not, my white brother,” said Ignosi, laying his 
hand affectionately on Sir Henry’s arm; “ thou hast fought 
enough, and if aught befell thee at his hands it would out 
my heart in twain.” 

“I wdll fight, Ignosi,” was Sir Henry’s answer. 

“It is well, Incubu; thou art a brave man. It will be 
a good fight. Behold, Twala, the Elephant is ready for 
thee.” 

The ex-king laughed savagely, and stepped forward and 
faced Curtis. For a moment they stood thus, and the set- 
ting sun caught their stalwart frames and clothed them 
both in fire. They were a well-matched pair. 

Then they began to circle round each other, their battle- 
axes raised. 

Suddenly Sir Henry sprang forward and struck a fear- 
ful blow at Twala, who stepped to one side. So heavy was 
the stroke that the striker half over -balanced himself, a 
circumstance of which his antagonist took a prompt ad- 
vantage. Circling his heavy battle-axe round his head, he 
brought it down with tremendous force. My heart jumped 
into my mouth; I thought the affair was already finished. 


200 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


But no; with a quick upward movement of the left arm 
Sir Henry interposed his shield between himself and the 
axe, with the result that its outer edge was shorn clean 
off, the axe falling on his left shoulder, but not heavily 
enough to do any serious damage. In another second Sir 
Henry got in another blow, which was also received by 
Twala upon his shield. Then followed blow upon blow, 
which were, in turn, either received upon the shield or 
avoided. The excitement grew intense ; the regiment 
which was watching the encounter forgot its discipline, 
and, drawing near, shouted and groaned at every stroke. 
Just at this time, too. Good, who had been laid upon the 
ground by me, recovered from his faint, and, sitting up, 
perceived what was going on. In an instant he was up, 
and, catching hold of my arm, hopped about from place 
to place on one leg, dragging me after him, yelling out 
encouragements to Sir Henry — 

“Go it, old fellow!” he halloed. “That was a good 
one ! Give it him amidships,” and so on. 

Presently Sir Henry, having caught a fresh stroke upon 
his shield, hit out with all his force. The stroke cut 
through Tvvala’s shield and through the tough chain armor 
behind it, gashing him in the shoulder. With a yell of 
pain and fury Twala returned the stroke with interest, 
and, such was his strength, shore right through the rhinoc- 
eros-horn handle of his antagonist’s battle-axe, strength- 
ened as it was with bands of steel, wounding Curtis in the 
face. 

A cry of dismay rose from the Buffaloes as our hero’s 
broad axe-head fell to the ground; and Twala, again rais- 
ing his weapon, flew at him with a shout. I shut my eyes. 
When I opened them again, it was to see Sir Henry’s shield 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


201 


lying on the ground, and Sir Henry himself with his great 
arms twined round Twala’s middle. To and fro they 
swung, hugging each other like hears, straining with all 
their mighty muscles for dear life and dearer honor. 
With a supreme effort Twala swung the Englishman clean 
off his feet, and down they came together, rolling over and 
over on the lime paving, Twala striking out at Curtis’s 
head with the battle-axe, and Sir Henry trying to drive the 
tolla he had drawn from his belt through Twala’s armor. 

It was a mighty struggle and an awful thing to see. 

“ Get his axe!” yelled Good; and perhaps our champion 
heard him. 

At any rate, dropping the tolla, he made a grab at the 
axe, which was fastened to Twala’s wrist by a strip of 
buffalo-hide, and, still rolling over and over, they fought 
for it like wildcats, drawing their breath in heavy gasps. 
Suddenly the hide string burst, and then, with a great 
effort. Sir Henry freed himself, the weapon remaining in 
his grasp. Another second and he was up on his feet, 
the red blood streaming from the wound in his face, and 
so was Twala. Drawing the heavy tolla from his belt, 
he staggered straight at Curtis and struck him upon the 
breast. The blow came home true and strong, but who- 
ever it was made that chain armor understood his art, for 
it withstood the steel. Again Twala struck out with a 
savage yell, and again the heavy knife rebounded and Sir 
Henry went staggering back. Once more Twala came on, 
and as he came our great Englishman gathered himself 
together, and, swinging the heavy axe round his head, hit 
at him with all his force. There was a shriek of excite- 
ment from a thousand throats, and, behold! Twala’s head 
seemed to spring from his shoulders, and then fell and 


202 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


came rolling and bounding along the ground towards Ig 
nosi, stopping just at his feet. For a second the corpse 
stood upright, the blood spouting in fountains from the 
severed arteries; then with a dull crash it fell to the earth, 
and the gold torque from the neck went rolling away across 
the pavement. As it did so Sir Henry, overpowered by 
faintness and loss of blood, fell heavily across it. 

In a second he was lifted up, and eager hands were pour- 
ing water on his face. Another minute, and the great 
gray eyes opened wide. 

He was not dead. 

Then I, just as the sun sank, stepping to where Twala’s 
head lay in the dust, unloosed the diamond from the dead 
brows and handed it to Ignosi. 

“ Take it,” I said, “ lawful king of the Kukuanas.” 

Ignosi bound the diadem upon his brows, and then ad- 
vancing placed his foot upon the broad chest of his head- 
less foe and broke out into a chant, or rather a paean of 
victory, so beautiful, and yet so utterly savage, that I de- 
spair of being able to give an adequate idea of it. I once 
heard a scholar with a fine voice read aloud from the Greek 
poet Homer, and I remember that the sound of the rolling 
lines seemed to make my blood stand still. Ignosi’s chant, 
uttered as it was in a language as beautiful and sonorous 
as the old Greek, produced exactly the same effect on me, 
although I was exhausted with toil and many emotions. 

“Now,” he began, “now is our rebellion swallowed up 
in victory, and our evil-doing justified by strength. 

“ In the morning the oppressors rose up and shook them- 
selves; they bound on their plumes and made them ready 
for war. 

“They rose up and grasped their spears: the soldiers 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


203 


called to the captains, * Come, lead us ’ — and the captains 
cried to the king, ‘ Direct thou the battle.’ 

“ They rose up in their pride, twenty thousand men, and 
yet a twenty thousand. 

“ Their plumes covered the earth as the plumes of a bird 
cover her nest; they shook their spears and shouted, yea, 
they hurled their spears into the sunlight; they lusted for 
the battle and were glad. 

“ They came up against me ; their strong ones came 
running swiftly to crush me ; they cried, ‘Ha! ha! he is 
as one already dead.’ 

“Then breathed I on them, and my breath was as the 
breath of a storm, and lo! they were not. 

“ My lightnings pierced them ; I licked up their strength 
with the lightning of my spears; I shook them to the earth 
with the thunder of my shouting. 

“ They broke — they scattered — they were gone as the 
mists of the morning. 

“ They are food for the crows and the foxes, and the 
place of battle is fat with their blood. 

“ Where are the mighty ones who rose up in the morn- 
ing? 

“ Where are the proud ones who tossed their plumes and 
cried, ‘ He is as one already dead ’ ? 

“They bow their heads, but not in sleep; they are 
stretched out, but not in sleep. 

“They are forgotten; they have gone into the black- 
ness, and shall not return; yea, others shall lead away 
their wives, and their children shall remember them no 
more. 

“And I — I! the king — like an eagle have I found my 
eyrie. 


204 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


‘‘Behold! far have I wandered in the night-time, yet 
have I returned to my little ones at the daybreak. 

“Creep ye under the shadow of my wings, O people, 
and I will comfort ye, and ye shall not be dismayed. 

“ Kow is the good time, the time of spoil. 

“ Mine are the cattle in the valleys, the virgins in the 
kraals are mine also. 

“ The winter is overpast, the summer is at hand. 

“ Now shall Evil cover up her face, and prosperity shall 
bloom in the land like a lily. 

“Rejoice, rejoice, my people! let all the land rejoice 
in that the tyranny is trodden down, in that I am the 
king.” 

He paused, and out of the gathering gloom there came 
back the deep reply: 

“ Thou art the king.” 

Thus it was that my prophecy to the herald came true, 
and within the forty-eight hours Twala’s headless co.-pwe 
was stiffening at Twala’s gate. 


CHAPTER XV. 

GOOD FALLS SICK. 


After the fight was ended Sir Henry and Good were 
carried into Twala’s hut, where I joined them. They were 
both utterly exhausted by exertion and loss of blood, and, 
indeed, my own condition was little better. I am very 
wiry, and can stand more fatigue than most men, probably 
on account of my light weight and long training; but that 
night I was fairly done up, and, as is always the case with 
me when exhausted, that old wound the lion gave me be- 
gan to pain me. Also my head was aching violently from 
the blow I had received in the morning, when I was knocked 
senseless. Altogether, a more miserable trio than we were 
that evening it would have been difficult to discover; and 
our only comfort lay in the reflection that we were ex- 
ceedingly fortunate to be there to feel miserable, instead 
of being stretched dead upon the plain, as so many thou- 
sands of brave men were that night, who had risen well 
and strong in the morning. Somehow, with the assistance 
of the beautiful Foulata, who, since we had been the means 
of saving her life, had constituted herself our handmaiden, 
and especially Good’s, we managed to get off the chain 
shirts, which had certainly saved the lives of two, of us 
that day, when we found that the flesh underneath was 
terribly bruised, for though the steel links had prevented 
the weapons from entering, they had not prevented them 
from bruising. Both Sir Henry and Good were a mass of 


206 


KING SOLOMON'S MINES. 


bruises, and I was by no means free. As a remedy Fou- 
lata brought us some pounded green leaves with an aro- 
matic odor, which, when applied as a plaster, gave us 
considerable relief. But though the bruises were painful, 
they did not give us such anxiety as Sir Henry’s and 
Good’s wounds. Good had a hole right through the fleshy 
part of his ‘‘beautiful white leg,” from which he had lost 
a great deal of blood; and Sir Henry had a deep cut over 
the jaw, inflicted by Twala’s battle-axe. Luckily Good 
was a very decent surgeon, and as soon as his small box of 
medicines was forthcoming, he, having thoroughly cleansed 
the wounds, managed to stitch up first Sir Henry’s and 
then his own pretty satisfactorily, considering the imper- 
fect light given by the primitive Kukuana lamp in the 
hut. Afterwards he plentifully smeared the wounds with 
some antiseptic ointment, of which there was a pot in the 
little box, and we covered them with the remains of a 
pocket-handkerchief which we possessed. 

Meanwhile Foulata had prepared us some strong broth, 
for we were too weary to eat. This we swallowed, and 
then threw ourselves down on the piles of magnificent 
karosses, or fur rugs, which were scattered about the dead 
king’s great hut. By a very strange instance of the irony 
of fate, it was on Twala’s own couch, and wrapped in 
Twala’s own particular kaross, that Sir Henry, the man 
who had slain him, slept that night. 

I say slept; but after that day’s work sleep was in- 
deed difficult. To begin with, in very truth the air was 
full 

“ Of farewells to the dying 
And mournings for the dead.” 

From every direction came the sound of the wailing of 


KING SOLOMON'S MINES. 


207 


women whose husbands, sons, and brothers had perished 
in the fight. No wonder that they wailed, for over twenty 
thousand men, or nearly a third of the Kukuana army, had 
been destroyed in that awful struggle. It was heart-rend- 
ing to lie and listen to their cries for those who would 
never return; and it made one realize the full horror of 
the work done that day to further man’s ambition. Tow- 
ards midnight, however, the ceaseless crying of the women 
grew less frequent, till at length the silence was only 
broken at intervals of a few minutes by a long, piercing 
howl that came from a hut in our immediate rear, and 
which I afterwards discovered proceeded from Gagool 
wailing for the dead king, Twala. 

After that I got a little fitful sleep, only to wake from 
time to time with a start, thinking that I was once more 
an actor in the terrible events of the last twenty-four 
hours. Now I seemed to see that warrior, whom my hand 
had sent to his last account, charging at me on the moun- 
tain-top; now I was once more in that glorious ring of 
Grays, which made its immortal stand against all Twala’s 
regiments, upon the little mound; and now again I saw 
Twala’s plumed and gory head roll past my feet with 
gnashing teeth and glaring eye. At last, somehow or 
other, the night passed away; but when dawn broke I 
found that my companions had slept no better than my- 
self. Good, indeed, was in a high fever, and very soon 
afterwards began to grow light-headed, and also, to my 
alarm, to spit blood, the result, no doubt, of some internal 
injury inflicted by the desperate efforts made by the Ku- 
kuana warrior on the previous day to get his big spear 
through the chain armor. Sir Henry, however, seemed 
pretty fresh, notwithstanding the wound on his face, which 


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KING SOLOMON*S MINES. 


made eating difficult and laughter an impossibility, though 
he was so sore and stiff that he could scarcely stir. 

About eiglit o’clock we had a visit from Infadoos, who 
seemed but little the worse — tough old warrior that he 
was — for his exertions on the previous day, though he in- 
formed us he had been up all night. He was delighted to 
see us, though much grieved at Good’s condition, and 
shook hands cordially; but I noticed that he addressed 
Sir Henry with a kind of reverence, as though he were 
something more than man; and, indeed, as we afterwards 
found out, the great Englishman was looked on through- 
out Kukuanaland as a supernatural being. No man, the 
soldiers said, could have fought as he fought, or could, at 
the end of a day of such toil and bloodshed, have slain 
Twala, who, in addition to being the king, was supposed 
to be the strongest warrior in Kukuanaland, in single com- 
bat, sheering through his bull-neck at a stroke. Indeed, 
that stroke became proverbial in Kukuanaland, and any 
extraordinary blow or feat of strength was thenceforth 
known as “ Incubu’s blow.” 

Infadoos told us also that all Twala’s regiments had 
submitted to Ignosi, and that like submissions were begin- 
ning to arrive from chiefs in the country. Twala’s death 
at the hands of Sir Henry had put an end to all further 
chance of disturbance; for Scragga had been his only son, 
and there was no rival claimant left alive. 

I remarked that Ignosi had swum to the throne through 
blood. The old chief shrugged his shoulders. “Yes,” he 
answered; “but the Kukuana people can only be kept 
cool by letting the blood flow sometimes. Many were 
killed, indeed, but the women were left, and others would 
soon grow up to take the places of the fallen. After this 
the land would be quiet for a while.” 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


209 


Afterwards, in the course of the morning, we had a short 
visit from Ignosi, on whose brow’s the royal diadem was 
now bound. As I contemplated him advancing with king- 
ly dignity, an obsequious guard following his steps, I could 
not help recalling to my mind the tall Zulu who had pre- 
sented himself to us at Durban some few months back, 
asking to be taken into our service, and reflecting on the 
strange revolutions of the wheel of fortune. 

“ Hail, O king !” I said, rising. 

‘‘ Yes, Macumazahn. King at last, by the grace of your 
three right hands,” was the ready answer. 

All was, he said, going on well ; and he hoped to ar- 
range a great feast in two weeks’ time, in order to show 
himself to the people. 

I asked him what he had settled to do with Gagool. 

“ She is the evil genius of the land,” he answered, ‘‘ and 
I shall kill her, and all the witch-doctors with her ! She 
has lived so long that none can remember when she was 
not old, and always she it is who has trained the witch- 
hunters, and made the land evil in the sight of the heavens 
above.” 

‘^Yet she knows much,” I replied; “it is easier to de- 
stroy knowledge, Ignosi, than to gather it.” 

“ It is so,” he said, thoughtfully. “ She, and she only, 
knows the secret of the ‘ Three Witches ’ yonder, whither 
the great road runs, where the kings are buried, and the 
silent ones sit.” 

“Yes, and the diamonds are. Forget not thy promise, 
Ignosi ; thou must lead us to the mines, even if thou hast 
to spare Gagool alive to show the way.” 

“ I will not forget, Macumazahn, and I will think on 
what thou sayest.” 

14 


210 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


After Ignosi’s visit 1 went to see Good, and found him 
quite delirious. The fever from his wound seemed to have 
taken a firm hold of his system, and to be complicated by 
an internal injury. For four or five days his condition was 
most critical; indeed, I firmly believe that had it not been 
for Foulata’s indefatigable nursing he must have died. 

Women are women, all the world over, whatever their 
color. Yet somehow it seemed curious to watch this dusky 
beauty bending night and day over the fevered man’s 
couch, and performing all the merciful errands of the sick- 
room as swiftly, gently, and with as fine an instinct as a 
trained hospital nurse. For the first night or two I tried 
to help her, and so did Sir Henry so soon as his stiffness 
allowed him to move, but she bore our interference with 
impatience, and finally insisted upon our leaving him to 
her, saying that our movements made him restless, which 
I think was true. Day and night she watched and tended 
him, giving him his only medicine, a native cooling drink 
made of milk, in which was infused the juice of the bulb 
of a species of tulip, and keeping the flies from settling 
on him. I can see the whole picture now as it appeared 
night after night by the light of our primitive lamp. Good 
tossing to and fro, his features emaciated, his eyes shining 
large and luminous, and jabbering nonsense by the yard; 
and seated on the ground by his side, her back resting 
against the wall of the hut, the soft-eyed, shapely Kukuana 
beauty, her whole face, weary as it was, animated by a 
look of infinite compassion — or was it something more than 
compassion ? 

For two days we thought that he must die, and crept 
about with heavy hearts. Only Foulata would not be- 
lieve it. 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


211 


“ He will live,” she said. 

For three hundred yards or more around Twala’s chief 
hut, where the sufferer lay, there was silence; for by the 
king’s order all who lived in the habitations behind it had, 
except Sir Henry and myself, been removed, lest any noise 
should come to the sick man’s ear. One night, it was the 
fifth night of his illness, as was my habit I went across to 
see how he was getting on before turning in for a few 
hours. 

I entered the hut carefully. The lamp placed upon the 
floor showed the figure of Good, tossing no more, but ly- 
ing quite still. 

So it had come at last ! and in the bitterness of my heart 
I gave something like a sob. 

“Hush — h — h !” came from the patch of dark shadow 
behind Good’s head. 

Then, creeping closer, I saw that he was not dead, but 
sleeping soundly, with Foulata’s taper fingers clasped 
tightly in his poor white hand. The crisis had passed, and 
he would live. He slept like that for eighteen hours; and 
I scarcely like to say it, for fear I should not be believed, 
but during that entire period did that devoted girl sit by 
him, fearing that if she moved and drew away her hand 
it would wake him. What she must have suffered from 
cramp, stiffness, and weariness, to say nothing of want of 
food, nobody will ever know; but it is a fact that, when 
at last he woke, she had to be carried away — her limbs 
were so stiff that she could not move them. 

After the turn had once been taken, Good’s recovery 
was rapid and complete. It was not till he was nearly 
well that Sir Henry told him of all he owed to Foulata; 
and when he came to the story of how she sat by his side 


212 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


for eighteen hours, fearing lest by moving she should 
wake him, the honest sailor’s eyes filled with tears. He 
turned and went straight to the hut where Foulata was 
preparing the midday meal (we were back in our old 
quarters now), taking me with him to interpret in case he 
could not make his meaning clear to her, though I am 
bound to say she understood him marvellously as a rule, 
considering how extremely limited was his foreign vocab- 
ulary. 

‘‘ Tell her,” said Good, “ that I owe her my life, and that 
I will never forget her kindness.” 

I interpreted, and under her dark skin she actually 
seemed to blush. 

Turning to him with one of those swift and graceful 
motions that in her always reminded me of the flight of a 
wild bird, she answered softly, glancing at him with her 
large brown eyes : 

“ Nay, my lord; my lord forgets ! Did he not save my 
life, and am I not my lord’s handmaiden ?” 

It will be observed that the young lady appeared to 
have entirely forgotten the share which Sir Henry and 
myself had had in her preservation from Twala’s clutches. 
But that is the way of women ! I remember my dear wife 
was just the same. I retired from that little interview 
sad at heart. I did not like Miss Foulata’s soft glances, 
for I knew the fatal amorous propensities of sailors in 
general, and Good in particular. 

There are two things in the world, as I have found it, 
which cannot be prevented: you cannot keep a Zulu from 
fighting, or a sailor from falling in love upon the slightest 
provocation ! 

It was a few days after this last occurrence that Ignosi 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


213 


held his great indaba ” (council), and was formally rec- 
ognized as king by the “indunas” (head men) of Kuku- 
analand. The spectacle was a most imposing one, includ- 
ing, as it did, a great review of troops. On this day the 
remaining fragment of the Grays were formally paraded, 
and in the face of the army thanked for their splendid 
conduct in the great battle. To each man the king made 
a large present of cattle, promoting them one and all to 
the rank of officers in the new corps of Grays which was 
in process of formation. An order was also promulgated 
throughout the length and breadth of Kukuanaland that, 
while we honored the country with our presence, we three 
were to be greeted with the royal salute, to be treated 
-with the same ceremony and respect that was by custom 
accorded to the king, and the power of life and death was 
publicly conferred upon us. Ignosi, too, in the presence 
®f his people, reaffirmed the promises that he had made, 
to the effect that no man’s blood should be shed without 
trial, and that witch-hunting should cease in the land. 

When the ceremony was over we waited upon Ignosi, 
and informed him that we were now anxious to investigate 
the mystery of the mines to which Solomon’s Road ran, 
asking him if he had discovered anything about them. 

“ My friends,” he answered, ‘‘ this have I discovered. 
It is there that the three great figures sit, who here are 
called the ‘ Silent Ones,’ and to whom Twala would have 
offered the girl, Foulata, as a sacrifice. It is there, too, in 
a great cave deep in the mountain, that the kings of the 
land are buried; there ye shall find Twala’s body, sitting 
with those who went before him. There, too, is a great 
pit which, at some time, long dead men dug out, mayhap 
for the stones ye speak of, suoh as I have heard men in 


214 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


Natal speak of at Kimberley. There, too, in the Place of 
Death is a secret chamber, known to none but the king 
and Gagool. But Twala, who knew it, is dead, and I 
know it not, nor know I what is in it. But there is a 
legend in the land that once, many generations gone, a 
white man crossed the mountains, and was led by a wom- 
an to the secret chamber and shown the 'wealth, but before 
he could take it she betrayed him, and he was driven by 
the king of the day back to the mountains, and since then 
no man has entered the chamber.” 

“ The story is surely true, Ignosi, for on the mountains 
we found the white man,” I said. 

“Yes, we found him. And now I have promised ye that 
if ye can find that chamber, and the stones are there — ” 

“ The stone upon thy forehead proves that they are 
there,” I put in, pointing to the great diamond I had taken 
from Twala’s dead brows. 

“ Mayhap; if they are there,” he said, “ ye shall have as 
many as ye can take hence — if, indeed, ye would leave me, 
my brothers.” 

“ First we must find the chamber,” said I. 

“ There is but one who can show it to thee — Gagool.” 

“ And if she will not ?” 

“ Then shall she die,” said Ignosi, sternly. “ I have 
saved her alive but for this. Stay, she shall choose,” 
and, calling to a messenger, he ordered Gagool to be 
brought. 

In a few minutes she came, hurried along by two guards, 
whom she was cursing as she walked. 

“ Leave her,” said the king to the guards. 

As soon as their support was withdrawn the withered 
old bundle, for she looked more like a bundle than any- 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


216 


thing else, sank into a heap on the floor, out of which her 
two bright, wicked eyes gleamed like a snake’s. 

“ What will ye with me, Ignosi ?” she piped. “Ye dare 
not touch me. If ye touch me I will blast ye as ye sit. 
Beware of my magic.” 

“ Thy magic could not save Twala, old she-wolf, and it 
cannot hurt me,” was the answer. “ Listen : I will this of 
thee, that thou reveal where is the chamber where are the 
shining stones.” 

“Ha! ha!” she piped, “none know but I, and I will 
never tell thee. The white devils shall go hence empty- 
handed.” 

“ Thou wilt tell me. I will make thee tell me.” 

“ How, O king ?” Thou art great, but can thy power 
wring the truth from a woman ?” 

“ It is difiicult, yet will I do it.” 

“ How, O king ?” 

“Hay, thus; if thou tellest not thou shalt slowly die.” 

“Die!” she shrieked, in terror and fury; “ye dare not 
touch me — man, ye know not who I am. How old think 
ye am I ? I knew your fathers, and your fathers’ fathers’ 
fathers. When the country was young I was here, when 
the country grows old I shall still be here. I cannot die 
unless I be killed by chance, for none dare slay me.” 

“ Yet will I slay thee. See, Gagool, mother of evil, thou 
art so old thou canst no longer love thy life. What can 
life be to such a hag as thee, who hast no shape, nor form, 
nor hair, nor teeth — hast naught, save wickedness and evil 
eyes ? It will be mercy to slay thee, Gagool.” 

“ Thou fool,” shrieked the old fiend, “ thou accursed fool, 
thinkest thou that life is sweet only to the young ? It is 
not so, and naught thou knowest of the heart of man to 


216 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


think it. To the young, indeed, death is sometimes wel- 
come, for the young can feel. They love and suffer, and 
it wrings them to see their beloved pass to the land of 
shadows. But the old feel not, they love not, and, ha! ha! 
they laugh to see another go out into the dark ; ha ! ha ! 
they laugh to see the evil that is done under the sun. All 
they love is life, the warm, warm sun, and the sweet, sweet 
air. They are afraid of the cold; afraid of the cold and the 
dark, ha ! ha ! ha !” and the old hag writhed in ghastly 
merriment on the ground. 

“ Cease thine evil talk and answer me,” said Ignosi, 
angrily. “ Wilt thou show the place where the stones are, 
or wilt thou not ? If thou wilt not, thou diest, even tiow,” 
and he seized a spear and held it over her. ^ 

‘‘ I will not show it; thou darest not kill me, darest not, 
He who slays me will be accursed forever.” 

Slowly Ignosi brought down the spear till it pricked the 
prostrate heap of rags. 

With a wild yell she sprang to her feet, and then again 
fell and rolled upon the floor. 

“Nay; I will show it. Only let me live, let me sit in the 
sun and have a bit of meat to suck, and I will show thee.” 

“It is well. I thought I should find a way to reason 
with thee. To-morrow shalt thou go with Infadoos and 
my white brothers to the place, and beware how thou 
failest, for if thou showest it not, then shalt thou slowly 
die. I have spoken.” 

“ I will not fail, Ignosi. I always keep my word: ha! 
ha ! ha ! Once a woman showed the place to a white man 
before, and behold evil befell him,” and here her wicked 
eyes glinted. “Her name was Gagool, too. Perchance I 
was that woman.” 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


217 


Thou liest,” I said, that was ten generations gone.” 

“ Mayhap, mayhap ; when one lives long one forgets. 
Perhaps it was my mother’s mother who told me ; surely 
her name was Gagool, also. But mark, ye will find in the 
place where the bright playthings are a bag of hide full 
of stones. The man filled that bag, but he never took it 
away. Evil befell him, I say; evil befell him ! Perhaps 
it was my mother’s mother who told me. It will be a 
merry journey — we can see the bodies of those who died 
in the battle as we go. Their eyes will be gone by now, 
and their ribs will be hollow. Ha ! ha ! ha !” 


CHAPTER XVI. 

THE PLACE OF DEATH. 

It was already dark on the third day after the scene 
described in the previous chapter, when we camped in 
some huts at the foot of the “ Three Witches,” as the tri- 
angle of mountains was called to which Solomon’s Great 
Road ran. Our party consisted of our three selves and 
Foulata, who waited on us — especially on Good — Infadoos, 
Gagool, who was borne along in a litter, inside which she 
could be heard muttering and cursing all day long, and a 
party of guards and attendants. The mountains, or rather 
the three peaks of the mountains, for the whole mass evi- 
dently consisted of a solitary upheaval, were, as I have 
said, in the form of a triangle, of which the base was tow- 
ards us, one peak being on our right, one on our left, 
and one straight in front of us. Never shall I forget the 
sight afforded by those three towering peaks in the early 
sunlight of the following morning. High, high above us, 
up into the blue air, soared their twisted snow-wreaths. 
Beneath the snow the peaks were purple with heath, and 
so were the wild moors that ran up the slopes towards 
them. Straight before us the white ribbon of Solomon’s 
Great Road stretched away up-hill to the foot of the centre 
peak, about five miles from us, and then stopped. It was 
its terminus. 

I had better leave the feelings of intense excitement with 
which we set out on our march that morning to the imagi- 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


219 


nation of those who read this history. At last we were 
drawing near to the wonderful mines that had been the 
cause of the miserable death of the old Portuguese don, 
three centuries ago, of my poor friend, his ill-starred de- 
scendant, and also, as we feared, of George Curtis, Sir 
Henry’s brother. Were we destined, after all that we had 
gone through, to fare any better? Evil befell them, as 
that old fiend, Gagool, said; would it also befall us ? Some- 
how, as we were marching up that last stretch of beauti- 
ful road, I could not help feeling a little superstitious about 
the matter, and so, I think, did Good and Sir Henry. 

For an hour and a half or more we tramped on up the 
heather-fringed road, going so fast in our excitement that 
the bearers with Gagool’s hammock could scarcely keep 
pace with us, and its occupant piped out to us to stop. 

“ Go more slowly, white men,” she said, projecting her 
hideous, shrivelled countenance between the curtains, and 
fixing her gleaming eyes upon us ; “ why will ye run to 
meet the evil that shall befall ye, ye seekers after treas- 
ure?” and she laughed that horrible laugh which always 
sent a cold shiver down my back, and which for a while 
quite took the enthusiasm out of us. 

However, on we went, till we saw before us, and between 
ourselves and the peak, a vast circular hole with sloping 
sides, three hundred feet or more in depth, and quite half 
a mile round. 

“ Can’t you guess what this is ?” I said to Sir Henry and 
Good, who were staring in astonishment down into the 
awful pit before us. 

They shook their heads. 

“ Then it is clear that you have never seen the diamond 
mines at Kimberley. You may depend on it that this is 


220 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


Solomon’s diamond mine; look there,” I said, pointing to 
the stiff blue clay which was yet to be seen among the 
grass and bushes which clothed the sides of the pit, ‘‘the 
formation is the same. I’ll be bound that if we went 
down there we should find ‘ pipes ’ of soapy, brecciated 
rock. Look, too,” and I pointed to a series of worn, flat 
slabs of rock which were placed on a gentle slope below 
the level of a watercourse which had in some past age been 
cut out of the solid rock; “if those are not tables once 
used to wash the ‘ stuff,’ I’m a Dutchman.” 

At the edge of this vast hole, which was the pit marked 
on the old don’s map, the great road branched into two 
and circumvented it. In many places this circumventing 
road was built entirely of vast blocks of stone, apparently 
with the object of supporting the edges of the pit and pre- 
venting falls of reef. Along this road we pressed, driven 
by curiosity to see what the three towering objects were 
which we could discern from the hither side of the great 
hole. As we got nearer we perceived that they were 
colossi of some sort or another, and rightly conjectured 
that these were the three “ Silent Ones ” that were held in 
such awe by the Kukuana people. But it was not until we 
got quite close that we recognized the full majesty of these 
“Silent Ones.” 

There, upon huge pedestals of dark rock, sculptured in 
unknown characters, twenty paces between each, and look- 
ing down the road which crossed some sixty miles of plain 
to Loo, were three colossal seated forms — two males and 
one female — each measuring about twenty feet from the 
crown of the head to the pedestal. 

The female form, which was nude, was of great though 
severe beauty, but unfortunately the features were injured 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


221 


by centuries of exposure to the weather. Rising from each 
side of her head were the points of a crescent. The two 
male colossi were, on the contrary, draped, and presented a 
terrifying cast of features, especially the one to our right, 
which had the face of a devil. That to our left was serene 
in countenance, but the calm upon it was dreadful. It was 
the calm of inhuman cruelty, the cruelty. Sir Henry re- 
marked, that the ancients attributed to beings potent for 
good, who could yet watch the sufferings of humanity, if 
not with rejoicing, at least without suffering themselves. 
The three formed a most awe-inspiring trinity, as they sat 
there in their solitude and gazed out across the plain for- 
ever. Contemplating these “ Silent Ones,” as the Kukuanas 
called them, an intense curiosity again seized us to know 
whose were the hands that had shaped them, who was it 
that had dug the pit and made the road. While I was 
gazing and wondering, it suddenly occurred to me (being 
familiar with the Old Testament) that Solomon went 
astray after strange gods, the names of three of whom I 
remembered — “ Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, 
Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of 
the children of Ammon” — and I suggested to my compan- 
ions that the three figures before us might represent these 
false divinities. ' 

“ Hum,” said Sir Henry, who was a scholar, having taken 
a high degree in classics at college, ‘‘ there may be some- 
thing in that; Ashtoreth of the Hebrews was the Astarte 
of the Phoenicians, who were the great traders of Solomon’s 
time. Astarte, who afterwards was the Aphrodite of the 
Greeks, was represented with horns like the half-moon, and 
there on the brow of the female figure are distinct horns. 
Perhaps these colossi were designed by some Phoenician 
official who managed the mines. Who can say ?” 


222 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


Before we had finished examining these extraordinary 
relics of remote antiquity, Infadoos came up, and, having 
saluted the “ Silent Ones ” by lifting his spear, asked us if 
we intended entering the ‘‘ Place of Death ” at once, or if 
we would wait till after we had taken food at midday. 
If we were ready to go at once, Gagool had announced her 
willingness to guide us. As it was not more than eleven 
o’clock, we — driven to it by a burning curiosity — announced 
our intention of proceeding at once, and I suggested that, 
in case we should be detained in the cave, we should take 
some food with us. Accordingly Gagool’s litter was 
brought up, and that lady herself assisted out of it; and 
meanwhile Foulata, at my request, stored some biltong, 
or dried game-flesh, together with a couple of gourds of 
water in a reed basket. Straight in front of us, at a dis- 
tance of some fifty paces from the backs of the colossi, rose 
a sheer wall of rock, eighty feet or more in height, that 
gradually sloped up till it formed the base of the lofty 
snow- wreathed peak which soared up into the air three 
thousand feet above us. As soon as she was clear of her 
hammock Gagool cast one evil grin upon us, and then, 
leaning on a stick, hobbled off towards the sheer face of 
the rock. We followed her till we came to a narrow portal 
solidly arched, that looked like the opening of a gallery of 
a mine. 

Here Gagool was waiting for us, still with that evil grin 
upon her horrid face. 

“Now, white men from the stars,” she piped; “great 
warriors, Incubu, Bougwan, and Macumazahn the wise, 
are ye ready ? Behold, I am here to do the bidding of my 
lord the king, and to show ye the store of bright stones.” 

“ We are ready,” I said. 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


223 


“ Good ! good ! Make strong your hearts to bear what 
ye shall see. Comest thou too, Infadoos, who betrayed thy 
master ?” 

Infadoos frowned as he answered : 

“Nay, I come not; it is not for me to enter there. But 
thou, Gagool, curb thy tongue, and beware how thou deal- 
est with my lords. At thy hands will I require them, and 
if a hair of them be hurt, Gagool, be thou fifty times a 
witch, thou shalt die. Hearest thou ?” 

“ I hear, Infadoos; I know thee, thou didst ever love big 
words; when thou wast a babe I remember thou didst 
threaten thine own mother. That was but the other day. 
But fear not, fear not ; I live but to do the bidding of the 
king. I have done the bidding of many kings, Infadoos, 
till in the end they did mine. Ha ! ha ! I go to look 
upon their faces once more, and Twala’s, toe ' Come on, 
come on, here is the lamp,’' and she drew a great gourd 
full of oil, and fitted with a rush wick, from under her fur 
cloak. 

“ Art thou coming, Foulata ?” asked Good in his villa- 
nous kitchen Kukuana, in which he had been improving 
himself under that lady’s tuition. 

“ I fear, my lord,” the girl answered, timidly. 

“Then give me the basket.” 

“ Nay, my lord, whither thou goest, there will I go also.” 

“ The deuce you will!” thought I to myself; “ that will 
be rather awkward if ever we get out of this.” 

Without further ado Gagool plunged into the passage, 
which was wide enough to admit of two walking abreast, 
and quite dark, we following her voice as she piped to us 
to come on, in some fear and trembling, which was not 
allayed by the sound of a sudden rush of wings. 


224 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


‘‘Hallo! what’s that?” halloed Good; “somebody hit 
me in the face.” 

“Bats,” said I; “on you go.” 

When we had, as far as we could judge, gone some fifty 
paces we perceived that the passage was growing faintly 
light. Another minute, and we stood in the most wonder- 
ful place that the eyes of living man ever lit on. 

Let the reader picture to himself the hall of the vastest 
cathedral he ever stood in, windowless, indeed, but dimly 
lighted from above (presumably by shafts connected with 
the outer air and driven in the roof, which arched away a 
hundred feet above our heads), and he will get some idea 
of the size of the enormous cave in which we stood, with 
the difference that this cathedral designed of nature was 
loftier and wider than any built by man. But its stupen- 
dous size was the least of the wonders of the place, for, 
running in rows adown its length were gigantic pillars of 
what looked like ice, but were, in reality, huge stalactites. 
It is impossible for me to convey any idea of the over- 
powering beauty and grandeur of these pillars of white 
spar, some of which were not less than twenty feet in 
diameter at the base, and sprang up in lofty and yet deli- 
cate beauty sheer to the distant roof. Others again were 
in process of formation. On the rock floor there was in 
these cases what looked. Sir Henry said, exactly like a 
broken column in an old Grecian temple, while high above, 
depending from the roof, the point of a huge icicle could 
be dimly seen. And even as we gazed we could hear the 
process going on, for presently with a tiny splash a drop 
of water would fall from the far-off icicle on to the column 
below. On some columns the drops only fell once in two 
or three minutes, and in these cases it would form an in- 


Kij^G Solomon’s mines. 


225 


teresting calculation to discover how long, at that rate of 
dripping, it would take to form a pillar, say eighty feet 
high by ten in diameter. That the process was, in at least 
one instance, incalculably slow, the following instance will 
suffice to show. Cut on one of these pillars we discovered 
a rude likeness of a mummy, by the head of which sat 
what appeared to be one of the Egyptian gods, doubtless 
the handiwork of some old-world laborer in the mine. 
This work of art was executed at about the natural height 
at which an idle fellow, be he Phoenician workman or 
British cad, is in the habit of trying to immortalize him- 
self at the expense of nature’s masterpieces, namely, about 
five feet from the ground ; yet at the time that we saw it, 
which must have been nearly three thousand years after 
the date of the execution of the drawing, the column was 
only eight feet high, and was still in process of formation, 
which gives a rate of growth of a foot to a thousand years, 
or an inch and a fraction to a century. This we knew be- 
cause, as we were standing by it, we heard a drop of water 
fall. 

Sometimes the stalactites took strange forms, presumably 
where the dropping of the water had not always been on 
the same spot. Thus, one huge mass, which must have 
weighed a hundred tons or so, was in the form of a pulpit, 
beautifully fretted over outside with what looked like lace. 
Others resembled strange beasts, and on the sides of the 
cave were fan-like ivory tracings, such as the frost leaves 
upon a pane. 

Out of the vast main aisle there opened here and there 
smaller caves, exactly. Sir Henry said, as chapels open out 
of great cathedrals. Some were large, but one or two — 
and this is a wonderful instance of how Nature carries out 
15 


226 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


her handiwork by the same unvarying laws, utterly irre- 
spective of size — were tiny. One little nook, for instance, 
was no larger than an unusually big doll’s house, and yet 
it might have been the model of the whole place, for the 
water dropped, the tiny icicles hung, and the spar columns 
were forming in just the- same way. 

We had not time, however, to examine this beautiful 
place as thoroughly as we should have liked to do, for 
unfortunately Gagool seemed to be indifferent to stalac- 
tites, and only anxious to get her business over. This an- 
noyed me the more, as I was particularly anxious to dis- 
cover, if possible, by what system the light was admitted 
into the place, and whether it was by the hand of man or 
of nature that this was done; also if it had been used in 
any way in ancient times, as seemed probable. However, 
we consoled ourselves with the idea that we would examine 
it thoroughly on our return, and followed on after our un- 
canny guide. 

On she led us, straight to the top of the vast and silent 
cave, where we found another doorway, not arched as the 
first was, but square at the top, something like the door- 
ways of Egyptian temples. 

“ Are ye prepared to enter the Place of Death ?” asked 
Gagool, evidently with a view to making us feel uncom- 
fortable. 

“Lead on, Macduff,” said Good, solemnly, trying to 
look as though he was not at all alarmed, as indeed did we 
all except Foulata, who caught Good by the arm for pro- 
tection. 

“ This is getting rather ghastly,” said Sir Henry, peep- 
ing into the dark doorway. “Come on, Quatermain — 
seniores priores. Don’t keep the old lady waiting and 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


227 


he politely made way for me to lead the van, for which I 
inwardly did not bless him. 

Tap, tap, went old Gagool’s stick down the passage, 
as she trotted along, chuckling hideously; and, still over- 
come by some unaccountable presentiment of evil, I hung 
back. 

“ Come, get on, old fellow,” said Good, “ or we shall lose 
our fair guide.” 

Thus adjured, I started down the passage, and after 
about twenty paces found myself in a gloomy apartment 
some forty feet long by thirty broad and thirty high, 
which in some past age had evidently been hollowed, by 
hand-labor, out of the mountain. This apartment was not 
nearly so well lighted as the vast stalactite ante-cave, and 
at the first glance all I could make out was a massive stone 
table running its length, with a colossal white figure at its 
head, and life-sized white figures all round it. Next I 
made out a brown thing, seated on the table in the centre, 
and in another moment my eyes grew accustomed to the 
light, and I saw what all these things were, and I was tail- 
ing out of it as hard as my legs would carry me. I am not 
a nervous man, in a general way, and very little troubled 
with superstitions, of which I have lived to see the folly; 
but I am free to own that that sight quite upset me, and 
had it not been that Sir Henry caught me by the collar 
and held me, I do honestly believe that in another five 
minutes I should have been outside that stalactite cave, and 
that the promise of all the diamonds in Kimberley would 
not have induced me to enter it again. But he held me 
tight, so I stopped because I could not help myself. But 
next second his eyes got accustomed to the light, too, and 
he let go of me and began to mop the perspiration off 


228 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


his forehead. As for Good, he swore feebly, and Foulata 
threw her arms round his neck and shrieked. 

Only Gagool chuckled loud and long. 

It was a ghastly sight. There at the end of the long 
stone table, holding in his skeleton fingers a great white 
spear, sat Death himself, shaped in the form of a colossal 
human skeleton, fifteen feet or more in height. High 
above his head he held the spear, as though in the act of 
striking; one bony hand rested on the stone table before 
him, in the position a man assumes on rising from his seat, 
while his frame was bent forward so that the vertebrae of 
the neck and the grinning, gleaming skull projected tow- 
ards us and fixed its hollow eye-places upon us, the jaws 
a little open, as though it were about to speak. 

“Great heavens !” said I, faintly, at last, “what can it 
be ?” 

“And what are those things said Good, pointing to 
the white company round the table. 

“And what on earth is that thing said Sir Henry, 
pointing to the brown creature seated on the table. 

“Hee! bee! hee !” laughed Gagool. “To those who 
enter the Hall of the Dead, evil comes. Hee ! hee ! hee ! 
ha ! ha !” 

“ Come, Incubu, brave in battle, come and see him thou 
slowest;” and the old creature caught his coat in her 
skinny fingers, and led him away towards the table. We 
followed. 

Presently she stopped and pointed at the brown object 
seated on the table. Sir Henry looked, and started back 
with an exclamation ; and no wonder, for there seated, 
quite naked, on the table, the head which Sir Henry’s 
battle-axe had shorn from the body resting on its knees, 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


229 


was the gaunt corpse of Twala, last king of the Kukuanas. 
Yes, there, the head perched upon the knees, it sat in all 
its ugliness, the vertebrae projecting a full inch above the 
level of the shrunken flesh of the neck, for all the world 
like a black double of Hamilton Tighe.* Over the whole 
surface of the corpse there was gathered a thin, glassy film, 
which made its appearance yet more appalling, and for 
which we were, at the moment, quite unable to account, 
till we presently observed that from the roof of the cham- 
ber the water fell steadily, drip! drip! drip! on to the 
neck of the corpse, from whence it ran down over the entire 
surface, and finally escaped into the rock through a tiny 
hole in the table. Then I guessed what it was — Twala! s 
body was being transformed into a stalactite. 

A look at the white forms seated on the stone bench that 
ran around that ghastly board confirmed this view. They 
were human forms, indeed, or rather had been human forms; 
now they were stalactites. This was the way in which the 
Kukuana people had from time immemorial preserved their 
royal dead. They petrified them. What the exact system 
was, if there was any beyond placing them for a long period 
of years under the drip, I never discovered, but there they 
sat, iced over and preserved forever by the silicious fluid. 
Anything more awe-inspiring than the spectacle of this 
long line of departed royalties, wrapped in a shroud of 
ice-like spar, through which the features could be dimly 
made out (there were twenty- seven of them, the last being 
Ignosi’s father), and seated round that inhospitable board, 
with Death himself for a host, it is impossible to imagine. 


* “ Now haste ye, my handmaidens, haste and see 

How he sits there and glowers with his head on his knee.’ 


230 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


That the practice of thus preserving their kings must have 
been an ancient one is evident from the number, which, 
allowing for an average reign of fifteen years, would, sup- 
posing that every king who reigned was placed here — an 
improbable thing, as some are sure to have perished in 
battle far from home — fix the date of its commencement 
at four and a quarter centuries back. But the colossal 
Death who sits at the head of the board is far older than 
that, and, unless I am much mistaken, owes his origin to 
the same artist who designed the three colossi. He was 
hewn out of a single stalactite, and, looked at as a work 
of art, was most admirably conceived and executed. Good, 
who understood anatomy, declared that, so far as he could 
see, the anatomical design of the skeleton was perfect down 
to the smallest bones. 

My own idea is that this terrific object was a freak of 
fancy on the part of some old-world sculptor, and that its 
presence had suggested to the Kukuanas the idea of plac- 
ing their royal dead under its awful presidency. Or per* 
haps it was placed there to frighten away any marauders 
who might have designs upon the treasure-chamber beyond. 
I cannot say. All I can do is to describe it as it is, and the 
reader must form his own conclusion. 

Such, at any rate, was the white Death and such were the 
white dead ! 


CHAPTER XVII. 

Solomon’s treasure-chamber. 

While we had been engaged in getting over our f rights 
and in examining the grisly wonders of the place, Gagool 
had been differently occupied. Somehow or other — for she 
was marvellously active when she chose — she had scrambled 
on to the great table and made her way to where our de- 
parted friend Twala was placed under the drip, to see, 
suggested Good, how he was pickling,” or for some dark 
purpose of her own. Then she came hobbling back, stop- 
ping now and again to address a remark (the tenor of 
which I could not catch) to one or other of the shrouded 
forms, just as you or I might greet an old acquaintance. 
Having gone through this mysterious and horrible cere- 
mony, she squatted herself down on the table immediately 
under the white Death, and began, so far as I could make 
out, to offer up prayers to it. The spectacle of this wicked 
old creature pouring out supplications (evil ones, no doubt) 
to the arch - enemy of mankind was so uncanny that it 
caused us to hasten our inspection. 

“Now, Gagool,” said I, in a low voice — somehow one 
did not dare to speak above a whisper in that place — “ lead 
us to the chamber.” 

The old creature promptly scrambled down off the table. 

“ My lords are not afraid ?” she said, leering up into my 
face. 

“ Lead on.” 


232 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


“ Good, my lords and she hobbled round to the back 
of the great Death. “ Here is the chamber ; let my lords 
light the lamp, and enter,” and she placed the gourd full 
of oil upon the floor, and leaned herself against the side 
of the cave. I took out a match, of which we still had a 
few in a box, and lit the rush wick, and then looked for 
the doorway, but there was nothing before us but the solid 
rock. Gagool grinned. ‘‘ The way is there, my lords.” 

Do not jest with us,” I said, sternly. 

“ I jest not, my lords. See !” and she pointed at the 
rock. 

As she did so, on holding up the lamp we perceived that 
a mass of stone was slowly rising from the floor and van- 
ishing into the rock above, where doubtless there was a 
cavity prepared to receive it. The mass was of the width 
of a good-sized door, about ten feet high and not less than 
five feet thick. It must have weighed at least twenty or 
thirty tons, and was clearly moved upon some simple bal- 
ance principle, probably the same as that upon which the 
opening and shutting of an ordinary modern window is 
arranged. How the principle was set in motion, of course 
none of us saw; Gagool was careful to avoid that; but I 
have little doubt that there was some very simple lever, 
which was moved ever so little by pressure on a secret 
spot, thereby throwing additional weight on to the hidden 
counterbalances, and causing the whole huge mass to be 
lifted from the ground. Very slowly and gently the great 
stone raised itself, till at last it had vanished altogether, 
and a dark hole presented itself to us in the place which 
it had filled. 

Our excitement was so intense, as we saw the way to 
Solomon’s treasure-chamber at last thrown open, that I for 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


233 


one began to tremble and shake. Would it prove a hoax 
after all, I wondered, or was old Da Silvestra right ? and 
were there vast hoards of wealth stored in that dark place, 
hoards which would make us the richest men in the whole 
world ? We should know in a minute or two. 

“ Enter, white men from the stars,” said Gagool, advanc- 
ing into the doorway; “but first hear your servant, Ga- 
gaoola the old. The bright stones that ye will see were 
dug out of the pit over which the Silent Ones are set, and 
stored here, I know not by whom. But once has this place 
been entered since the time that those who stored the 
stones departed in haste, leaving them behind. The re- 
port of the treasure went down among the people who 
lived in the country from age to age, but none knew where 
the chamber was, nor the secret of the door. But it hap- 
pened that a white man reached this country from over 
the mountains, perchance he too came ‘from the stars,’ 
and was well received of the king of the day. He it ir, 
who sits yonder,” and she pointed to the fifth king at the 
table of the dead. “ And it came to pass that he and a 
woman of the country who was with him came to this 
place, and that by chance the woman learned the secret 
of the door — a thousand years might ye search, but ye 
should never find it. Then the white man entered with 
the woman and found the stones, and filled with stones 
the skin of a small goat, which the woman had with her 
to hold food. And as he was going from the chamber he 
took up one more stone, a large one, and held it in his 
hand.” Here she paused. 

“ Well,” I asked, breathless with interest, as we all were, 
“ what happened to Da Silvestra ?” 

The old hag started at the mention of the name. 


234 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


‘‘ How knowest thou the dead man’s name ?” she asked, 
sharply; and then, without waiting for an answer, went 
on — 

‘‘None knew what happened; but it came about that 
the white man was frightened, for he flung down the goat- 
skin with the stones, and fled out with only the one 
stone in his hand, and that the king took, and it is the 
stone that thou, Macumazahn, didst take from Twala’s 
brows.” 

“ Have none entered here since ?” I asked, peering again 
down the dark passage. 

“None, my lords. Only the secret of the door hath 
been kept, and every king hath opened it, though he hath 
not entered. There is a saying, that those who enter there 
will die within a moon, even as the white man died in the 
cave upon the mountain, where ye found him, Macumazahn. 
Ha! ha! mine are true words.” 

Our eyes met as she said it, and I turned sick and cold. 
How did the old hag know all these things ? 

“Enter, my lords. If I speak truth the goat-skin with 
the stones will lie upon the floor; and if there is truth as 
to whether it is death to enter here, that will ye learn af- 
terwards. Ha! ha! ha!” And she hobbled through the 
doorway, bearing the light with her; but I confess that 
once more I hesitated about following. 

“ Oh, confound it all !” said Good, “ here goes. I am 
not going to be frightened by that old devil;” and, followed 
by Foulata, who, however, evidently did not at all like the 
job, for she was shivering with fear, he plunged into the 
passage after Gagool — an example which we quickly fol- 
lowed. 

A few yards down the passage, in the narrow way hewn 


KING Solomon’s mines. 23S 

out of the living rock, Gagool had paused, and was waiting 
for us. 

“ See, my lords,” she said, holding the light before her, 
those who stored the treasure here fled in haste, and be- 
thought them to guard against any who should find the 
secret of the door, but had not the time,” and she pointed 
to large square blocks of stone, which had, to the height 
of two courses (about two feet three), been placed across 
the passage with a view to walling it up. Along the side 
of the passage were similar blocks ready for use, and, most 
curious of all, a heap of mortar and a couple of trowels, 
which, so far as we had time to examine them, appeared 
to be of a similar shape and make to those used by work- 
men of this day. 

Here Foulata, who had throughout been in a state of 
great fear and agitation, said that she felt faint and could 
go no farther, but would wait there. Accordingly we 
set her down on the unfinished wall, placing the basket of 
provisions by her side, and left her to recover. 

Following the passage for about fifteen paces farther, we 
suddenly came to an elaborately painted wooden door. It 
was standing wide open. Whoever was last there had 
either not had the time, or had forgotten to shut it. 

Across the threshold lay a skin hag ^ formed of a goat- 
skin^ that appeared to he full of pehhles. 

“Hee! hee! white men,” sniggered Gagool, as the light 
from the lamp fell upon it. “ What did I tell ye, that the 
white man who came here fled in haste, and dropped the 
woman’s bag — behold it!” 

Good stooped down and lifted it. It was heavy and 
jingled. 

‘‘By Jove! I believe it’s full of diamonds,” he said, in 


236 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


an awed whisper; and, indeed, the idea of a small goat- 
skin full of diamonds is enough to awe anybody. 

Go on,” said Sir Henry, impatiently. Here, old lady, 
give me the lamp,” and, taking it from Gagool’s hand, he 
stepped through the doorway and held it high above his 
head. 

We pressed in after him, forgetful, for the moment, of 
the bag of diamonds, and found ourselves in Solomon’s 
treasure-chamber. 

At first, all that the somewhat faint light given by the 
lamp revealed was a room hewn out of the living rock, and 
apparently not more than ten feet square. Next there 
came into sight, stored one on the other as high as the 
roof, a splendid collection of elephant-tusks. How many 
of them there were we did not know, for of course we 
could not see how far they went back, but there could not 
have been less than the ends of four or five hundred tusks 
of the first quality visible to our eyes. There, alone, was 
enough ivory before us to make a man wealthy for life. 
Perhaps, I thought, it was from this very store that Solo- 
mon drew his material for his “ great throne of ivory,” of 
which there was not the like made in any kingdom. 

On the opposite side of the chamber were about a score 
of wooden boxes, something like Martini - Henry ammu- 
nition boxes, only rather larger, and painted red. 

“There are the diamonds,” cried I ; “bring the light.” 

Sir Henry did so, holding it close to the top box, of 
which the lid, rendered rotten by time even in that dry 
place, appeared to have been smashed in, probably by Da 
Silvestra himself. Pushing my hand through the hole in 
the lid I drew it out full, not of diamonds, but of gold 
pieces, of a shape that none of us had seen before, and 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


237 


with what looked like Hebrew characters stamped upon 
them. 

“Ah!” I said, replacing the coin, “we sha’n’t go back 
empty-handed, anyhow. There must be a couple of thou- 
sand pieces in each box, and there are eighteen boxes. I 
suppose it was the money to pay the workmen and mer- 
chants.” 

“Well,” put in Good, “I think that is the lot ; I don’t 
see any diamonds, unless the old Portuguese put them all 
into this bag.” 

“ Let my lords look yonder where it is darkest, if they 
would find the stones,” said Gagool, interpreting our looks. 
“ There my lords will find a nook, and three stone chests 
in the nook, two sealed and one open.” 

Before interpreting this to Sir Henry, who had the light, 
I could not resist asking how she knew these things, if no 
one had entered the place since the white man, generations 
ago. 

“Ah, Macumazahn, who watchest by night,” was the 
mocking answer, “ ye who live in the stars, do ye not know 
that some have eyes that can see through rock ?” 

“ Look in that corner, Curtis,” I said, indicating the spot 
Gagool had pointed out. 

“ Hallo, you fellows,” he said, “ here’s a recess. Great 
heavens ! look here.” 

We hurried up to where he was standing in a nook, 
something like a small bow- window. Against the wall of 
this recess were placed three stone chests, each about two 
feet square. Two were fitted with stone lids, the lid of 
the third rested against the side of the chest, which was 
open. 

“ Looh /” he repeated, hoarsely, holding the lamp over 


238 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


the open chest. We looked, and for a moment could make 
nothing out, on account of a silvery sheen that dazzled us. 
When our eyes got used to it we saw that the chest was 
three-parts full of uncut diamonds, most of them of con- 
siderable size. Stooping, I picked some up. Yes, there 
was no mistake about it, there was the unmistakable soapy 
feel about them. 

I fairly gasped as I dropped them. 

“We are the richest men in the whole world,” I said. 
“ Monte Cristo is a fool to us.” 

“We shall flood the market with diamonds,” said Good. 

“ Got to get them there first,” suggested Sir Henry. 

And we stood with pale faces and stared at each other, 
with the lantern in the middle, and the glimmering gems 
below, as though we were conspirators about to commit 
a crime, instead of being, as we thought, the three most 
fortunate men on earth. 

“Hee ! hee ! hee !” went old Gagool behind us, as she 
flitted about like a vampire bat. “There are the bright 
stones that ye love, white men, as many as ye will ; take 
them, run them through your fingers, eat of them, hee ! 
hee ! drink of them, ha ! ha !” 

There was something so ridiculous at that moment to 
my mind in the idea of eating and drinking diamonds, that 
I began to laugh outrageously, an example which the oth- 
ers followed, without knowing why. There we stood and 
shrieked with laughter over the gems which were ours, 
which had been found for us thousands of years ago by 
the patient delvers in the great hole yonder, and stored 
for by Solomon’s long-dead overseer, whose name, per- 
chance, was written in the characters stamped on the faded 
'vrax that yet adhered to the lids of the chest. Solomon 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


239 


never got them, nor David, nor Da Silvestra, nor anybody 
else. We had got them ; there before us were millions 
of pounds’ worth of diamonds, and thousands of pounds’ 
worth of gold and ivory, only waiting to be taken away. 

Suddenly the fit passed off, and we stopped laughing. 

“ Open the other chests, white men, croaked Gagool, 
“there are surely more therein. Take your fill, white 
lords !” 

Thus adjured, we set to work to pull up the stone lids 
on the other two, first — not without a feeling of sacrilege 
— breaking the seals that fastened them. 

Hoorah ! they were full too, full to the brim ; at least 
the second one was ; no wretched Da Silvestra had been 
filling goat-skins out of that. As for the third chest, it 
was only about a fourth full, but the stones were all picked 
ones; none less than twenty carats, and some of them as 
large as pigeon-eggs. Some of these biggest ones, how- 
ever, we could see by holding them up to the light, were a 
little yellow, “ off colored,” as they call it at Kimberley. 

What we did not see, however, was the look of fearful 
malevolence that old Gagool favored us with as she crept, 
crept like a snake, out of the treasure-chamber and down 
the passage towards the massive door of solid rock. 

Hark ! Cry upon cry comes ringing up the vaulted 
path. It is Foulata’s voice ! 

“OA, Bougwan ! help! help! the rock falls V'' 

“ Leave go, girl ! Then — ” 

“ Help ! help! she has stabbed me /” 

By now we are running down the passage, and this is 
what the light from the lamp falls on. The door of rock 
is slowly closing down ; it is not three feet from the floor. 


240 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


Near it struggle Foulata and Gagool. The red blood of 
the former runs to her knee, but still the brave girl holds 
the old witch, who fights like a wildcat. Ah ! she is free ! 
Foulata falls, and Gagool throws herself on the ground, to 
twist herself like a snake through the crack of the closing 
stone. She is under — ah', God ! too late ! too late ! The 
stone nips her, and she yells in agony. Down, down, it 
comes, all the thirty tons of it, slowly pressing her old 
body against the rock below. Shriek upon shriek, such as 
we never heard, then a long, sickening crunch, and the door 
was shut just as we, rushing down the passage, hurled our- 
selves against it. 

It was all done in four seconds. 

Then we turned to Foulata. The poor girl was stabbed 
in the body, and could not, I saw, live long. 

“ Ah ! Bougwan, I die !” gasped the beautiful creature. 
“ She crept out — Gagool ; I did not see her, I was faint — 
and the door began to fall ; then she came back, and was 
looking up the path — and I saw her come in through the 
slowly falling door, and caught her and held her, and she 
stabbed me, and I die, Bougwan.” 

“Poor girl ! poor girl !” Good cried ; and then, as he 
could do nothing else, he fell to kissing her. 

“Bougwan,” she said, after a pause, “is Macumazahn 
there ? it grows so dark, I cannot see.” 

“ Here I am, Foulata.” 

“ Macumazahn, be my tongue for a moment, I pray thee, 
for Bougwan cannot understand me, and before I go into 
the darkness — I would speak a word.” 

“Say on, Foulata, I will render it.” 

“ Say to my lord, Bougwan, that — I love him, and that 
I am glad to die because I know that he cannot cumber 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


241 


his life with such as me, for the sun cannot mate with the 
darkness, nor the white with the black. 

‘‘Say that at times I have felt as though there were a 
bird in my bosom, which would one day fly hence and sing 
elsewhere ; even now, though I cannot lift my hand, and 
my brain grows cold, I do not feel as though my heart 
were dying ; it is so full of love that could live a thousand 
years, and yet be young. Say that if I live again, may- 
hap I shall see him in the stars, and that — I will search 
them all, though perchance I should there still be black 
and he would — still be white. Say — nay, Macumazahn, 
say no more, save that I love — Oh, hold me closer, Boug- 
wan, I cannot feel thine arms — oh ! oh /” 

“ She is dead — she is dead !” said Good, rising in grief, 
the tears running down his honest face. 

“You need not let that trouble you, old fellow,” said 
Sir Henry. 

“Eh !” said Good; “what do you mean?” 

“ I mean that you will soon be in a position to join her. 
3Ian, dorCt you see that we are hurled alive .^” 

Until Sir Henry uttered these words, I do not think the 
full horror of what had happened had come home to us, 
preoccupied as we were with the sight of poor Foulata’s 
end. But now we understood. The ponderous mass of 
rock had closed, probabl}^ forever, for the only brain which 
knew its secret was crushed to powder beneath it. This 
was a door that none could hope to force with anything 
short of dynamite in large quantities. And we were the 
wrong side of it ! 

For a few minutes we stood horrified there over the 
corpse of Foulata. All the manhood seemed to have gone 
out of us. The first shock of this idea of the slow and 
16 


242 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


miserable end that awaited us was overpowering. 
saw it all now; that fiend, Gagool, had planned this snare 
for us from the first. It would have been just the jest that 
her evil mind would have rejoiced in, the idea of the three 
white men, whom, for some reason of her own, she had al- 
ways hated, slowly perishing of thirst and hunger in the 
company of the treasure they had coveted. I saw the 
point of that sneer of hers about eating and drinking the 
diamonds now. Perhaps somebody had tried to serve the 
poor old don in the same way, when he abandoned the skin 
full of jewels. 

“This will never do,” said Sir Henry, hoarsely ; “the 
lamp will soon go out. Let us see if we can’t find the 
spring that works the rock.” 

We sprang forward with desperate energy, and, stand- 
ing in a bloody ooze, began to feel up and down the door 
and the sides of the passage. But no knob or spring could 
we discover. 

“ Depend on it,” I said, “ it does not work from the in- 
side; if it did Gagool would not have risked trying to 
crawl underneath the stone. It was the knowledge of this 
that made her try to escape at all hazard, curse her.” 

“ At all events,” said Sir Henry, with a hard little laugh, 
“retribution was swift; hers was almost as awful an end 
as ours is likely to be. We can do nothing with the door ; 
let us go back to the treasure -room.” We turned and 
went, and as we did so I perceived by the unfinished wall 
across the passage the basket of food which poor Foulata 
had carried. I took it up and brought it with me back to 
that accursed treasure- chamber that was to be our grave. 
Then we went back and reverently bore in Foulata’s corpse, 
laying it on the floor by the boxes of coin. 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


243 


Next we seated ourselves, leaning our backs against the 
three stone chests of priceless treasures. 

“Let us divide the food,” said Sir Henry, “so as to 
make it last as long as possible.” Accordingly we did so. 
It would, we reckoned, make four infinitesimally small 
meals for each of us ; enough, say, to support life for a 
couple of days. Besides the biltong, or dried game-flesh, 
there were two gourds of water, each holding about a 
quart. 

“ Now,” said Sir Henry, “ let us eat and drink, for to- 
morrow we die.” 

We each ate a small portion of the biltong, and drank 
a sip of water. We had, needless to say, but little appe- 
tite, though we were sadly in need of food, and felt better 
after swallowing it. Then we got up and made a sys- 
tematic examination of the walls of our prison-house, in 
the faint hope of finding some means of exit, sounding 
them and the floor carefully. 

There was none. It was not probable that there would 
be one to a treasure- chamber. 

The lamp began to burn dim. The fat was nearly ex- 
hausted. 

“ Quatermain,” said Sir Henry, “ what is the time — your 
watch goes ?” 

I drew it out and looked at it. It was six o’clock; we 
had entered the cave at eleven. 

“Infadoos will miss us,” I suggested. “If we do not 
return to-night he will search for us in the morning, 
Curtis.” 

“ He may search in vain. He does not know the secret 
of the door, nor even where it is. No living person knew 
it yesterday, except Gagool. To-day no one knows it. 


244 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


Even if he found the door he could not break it down. 
All the Kukuana army could not break through five feet 
of living rock. My friends, I see nothing for it but to 
bow ourselves to the will of the Almighty. The search 
for treasure has brought many to a bad end; we shall go 
to swell their number.” 

The lamp grew dimmer yet. 

Presently it flared up and showed the whole scene in 
strong relief, the great mass of white tusks, the boxes full 
of gold, the corpse of poor Foulata stretched before them, 
the goat-skin full of treasure, the dim glimmer of the 
diamonds, and the wild, wan faces of us three white men 
seated there awaiting death by starvation. 

Suddenly it sank, and expired. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

WE ABANDON HOPE. 


I CAN give no adequate description of the horrors of the 
night which followed. Mercifully they were to some ex- 
tent mitigated by sleep, for even in such a position as ours 
wearied nature will sometimes assert itself. But I, at any 
rate, found it impossible to sleep much. Putting aside the 
terrifying thought of our impending doom — for the bravest 
man on earth might well quail from such a fate as awaited 
us, and I never had any great pretensions to be brave 
— the silence itself was too great to allow of it. Reader, 
you may have lain awake at night and thought the silence 
oppressive, but I say with confidence that you can have no 
idea what a vivid, tangible thing perfect silence really is. 
On the surface of the earth there is always some sound or 
motion, and though it may in itself be imperceptible, yet 
does it deaden the sharp edge of absolute silence. But 
here there was none. We were buried in the bowels of a 
huge, snow-clad peak. Thousands of feet above us the 
fresh air rushed over the white snow, but, no sound of it 
reached us. We were separated by a long tunnel and five 
feet of rock even from the awful chamber of the dead; and 
the dead make no noise. The crashing of all the artillery 
of earth and heaven could not have come to our ears in our 
living tomb. We were cut off from all echoes of the world 
— we were as already dead. 

And then the irony of the situation forced itself upon 


246 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


me. There around us lay treasures enough to pay off a 
moderate national debt, or to build a fleet of iron-clads, 
and yet we would gladly have bartered them all for the 
faintest chance of escape. Soon, doubtless, we should be 
glad to exchange them for a bit of food or a cup of water, 
and, after that, even for the speedy close to our sufferings. 
Truly wealth, which men spend all theii* lives in acquiring, 
is a valueless thing at the last. 

And so the night wore on. 

“Good,” said Sir Henry’s voice at last, and it sounded 
awful in the intense stillness, “how many matches have 
you in the box ?” 

“Eight, Curtis.” 

“Strike one, and let us see the time.” 

He did so, and in contrast to the dense darkness the 
flame nearly blinded us. It was five o’clock by my watch. 
The beautiful dawn was now blushing on the snow-wreaths 
far over our heads, and the breeze would be stirring the 
night mists in the hollows. 

“We had better eat something and keep up our 
strength,” said I. 

“ What is the good of eating ?” answered Good ; “ the 
sooner we die and get it over the better.” 

“ While there is life there is hope,” said Sir Henry. 

Accordingly we ate and sipped some water, and another 
period of time passed, when somebody suggested that it 
might be as well to get as near to the door as possible and 
hallo, on the faint chance of somebody catching a sound 
outside. Accordingly Good, who, from long practice at 
sea, has a fine, piercing note, groped his way down the pas-‘ 
«age and began, and I must say he made a most diabolical 
noise I never heard such yells; but it might have been 
a mosquito buzzing for all the effect it produced. 


XING Solomon’s mines. 


247 


After a while he gave it up, and came back very thirsty, 
and had to have some water. After that we gave up yell- 
ing, as it encroached on the supply of water. 

So we all sat down once more against our chests of use- 
less diamonds in that dreadful inaction which was one of 
the hardest circumstances of our fate; and I am bound to 
say that, for my part, I gave way in despair. Laying my 
head against Sir Henry’s broad shoulder, I burst into tears; 
and I think I heard Good gulping away on the other side, 
and swearing hoarsely at himself for doing so. 

Ah, how good and brave that great man was! Had we 
been two frightened children, and he our nurse, he could 
not have treated us more tenderly. Forgetting his own 
share of miseries, he did alj he could to soothe our broken 
nerves, telling stories of men who had been in somewhat 
similar circumstances and miraculously escaped; and when 
these failed to cheer us, pointing out how, after all, it was 
only anticipating an end that must come to us all, that it 
would soon be over, and that death from exhaustion was a 
merciful one (which is not true). Then, in a diffident sort 
of a way, as I had once before heard him do, he suggested 
that we should throw ourselves on the mercy of a higher 
Power, which, for my part, I did with great vigor. 

His is a beautiful character, very quiet, but very strong. 

And so somehow the day went as the night had gone 
(if, indeed, one can use the terms where all was densest 
night), and when I lit a match to see the time it was seven 
o’clock. 

Once more we ate and drank, and as we did so an idea 
occurred to me. 

“ How is it,” said I, “ that the air in this place keeps 
fresh ? It is thick and heavy, but it is perfectly fresh.” 


248 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


“Great heavens!” said Good, starting up, “I never 
thought of that. It can’t come through the stone door, 
for it is air-tight, if ever a door was. It must come from 
somewhere. If there were no current of air in the place 
we should have been stifled when we first came in. Let 
us have a look.” 

It was wonderful what a change this mere spark of hope 
wrought in us. In a moment we were all three groping 
about the place on our hands and knees, feeling for the 
slightest indication of a draught. Presently my ardor re- 
ceived a check. I put my hand on something cold. It 
was poor Foulata’s dead face. 

For an hour or more we went on feeling about, till at 
last Sir Henry and I gave it up in despair, having got con- 
siderably hurt by constantly knocking our heads against 
tusks, chests, and the sides of the chamber. But Good 
still persevered, saying, with an approach to cheerfulness, 
that it was better than doing nothing. 

“ I say, you fellows,” he said, presently, in a constrained 
sort of voice, “ come here.” 

Needless to ^ay we scrambled over towards him quick 
enough. 

“ Quatermain, put your hand here where mine is. Now, 
do you feel anything?” 

“ I think I feel air coming up.” 

“Now listen.” He rose and stamped upon the place, 
and a flame of hope shot up in our hearts. It rang 
hollow. 

With trembling hands I lit a match. I had only three 
left, and we saw that we were in the angle of the far cor- 
ner of the chamber, a fact that accounted for our not hav- 
ing noticed the hollow ring of the place during our former 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


249 


exhaustive examination. As the match burned we scruti’ 
nized the spot. There was a join in the solid rock floor, 
and, great heavens ! there, let in level with the rock, was 
a stone ring. We said no word; we were too excited, and 
our hearts beat too wildly with hope to allow us to speak. 
Good had a knife, at the back of which was one of those 
hooks that are made to extract stones from horses’ hoofs. 
He opened it, and scratched away at the ring with it. 
Finally he got it under, and levered away gently for fear 
of breaking the hook. The ring began to move. Being 
of stone, it had not got set fast in all the centuries it had 
lain there, as would have been the case had it been of iron. 
Presently it was upright. Then he got bis hands into it 
and tugged with all his force, but nothing budged. 

“ Let me try,” I said, impatiently, for the situation of 
the stone, right in the angle of the corner, was such that 
it was impossible for two to pull at once. I got hold and 
strained away, but with no results. 

Then Sir Henry tried and failed. 

Taking the hook again. Good scratched all round the 
crack where we felt the air coming up. 

“Now, Curtis,” he said, “tackle on, and put your back 
into it; you are as strong as two. Stop,” and he took off 
a stout black silk handkerchief, which, true to his habits 
of neatness, he still wore, and ran it through the ring. 
“Quatermain, get Curtis round the middle and pull for 
dear life when I give the word. JSToii} 

Sir Henry put out all his enormous strength, and Good 
and I did the same, with such power as nature had given 
us. 

“Heave! heave! it’s giving,” gasped Sir Henry; and I 
heard the muscles of his great back cracking. Suddenly 


260 


KING SOLOMON S MINES. 


there came a parting sound, then a rush of air, and we 
were all on our backs on the floor with a great flag-stone 
on the top of us. Sir Henry’s strength had done it, and 
never did muscular power stand a man in better stead. 

“ Light a match, Quatermain,” he said, as soon as we 
had picked ourselves up and got one breath; ‘‘carefully 
now.” 

I did so, and there before us was, God be praised! the 
first step of a stone stair. 

“ Now what is to be done ?” asTied Good. 

“ Follow the stair, of course, and trust to Providence.” 

“Stop!” said Sir Henry; “Quatermain, get the bit of 
biltong and the water that is left; we may want them.” 

I went creeping back to our place by the chests for that 
purpose, and as I was coming away an idea struck me. 
We had not thought much of the diamonds for the last 
twenty-four hours or so ; indeed, the idea of diamonds 
was nauseous, seeing what they had entailed upon us; 
but, thought I, I may as well pocket a few in case we ever 
should get out of this ghastly hole. So I just stuck my 
fist into the first chest and filled all the available pockets 
of my shooting-coat, topping up — this was a happy thought 
— with a couple of handfuls of big ones out of the third 
chest. 

“ I say, you fellows,” I sung out, “ won’t you take some 
diamonds with you ? I’ve filled my pockets.” 

“Oh! hang the diamonds!” said Sir Henry. “I hope 
that I may never see another.” 

As for Good, he made no answer. He was, I think, 
taking a last farewell of all that was left of the poor girl 
who loved him so well. And, curious as it may seem to 
you, my reader, sitting at home at ease and reflecting on 


KiKG Solomon’s mines. 


251 


the vast, indeed, the immeasurable, wealth which we were 
thus abandoning, I can assure you that if you had passed 
some twenty-eight hours with next to nothing to eat and 
drink in that place, you would not have cared to cumber 
yourself with diamonds while plunging down into the un- 
known bowels of the earth, in the wild hope of escape 
from an agonizing death. If it had not, from the habits 
of a lifetime, become a sort of second nature with me 
never to leave anything worth having behind if there was 
the slightest chance of my being able to carry it away, I 
am sure I should not have bothered to fill my pockets. 

‘‘ Come on, Quatermain,” said Sir Henry, who was al- 
ready standing on the first step of the stone stair. “ Steady, 
I will go first.” 

“Mind where you put your feet; there may be some 
awful hole underneath,” said I. 

“Much more likely to be another room,” said Sir 
Henry, as he slowly descended, counting the steps as he 
went. 

When he got to “fifteen” he stopped. “Here’s the 
bottom,” he said. “Thank goodness! I think it’s a pas- 
sage. Come on down.” 

Good descended next, and I followed last, and on reach- 
ing the bottom lit one of the two remaining matches. 
By its light we could just see that we were standing in a 
narrow tunnel, which ran right and left at right angles to 
the staircase we had descended. Before we could make 
out any more the match burned my fingers and went out. 
Then arose the delicate question of which way to turn. 
Of course it was impossible to know what the tunnel was 
or where it ran to, and yet to turn one way might lead us 
to safety, and the other to destruction. We were utterly 


252 KING Solomon’s mines. 

perplexed, till suddenly it struck Good that when I had lit 
the match the draught of the passage blew the flame to 
the left. 

“Let us go against the draught,” he said; “air draws 
inward, not outward.” 

We took this suggestion, and, feeling along the wall 
with the hand, while trying the ground before at every 
step, we departed from that accursed treasure-chamber on 
our terrible quest. If ever it should be entered again by 
living man, which I do not think it will be, he will find a 
token of our presence in the open chests of jewels, the 
empty lamp, and the white bones of poor Foulata. 

When we had groped our way for about a quarter of an 
hour along the passage it suddenly took a sharp turn, or 
else was bisected by another, which we followed, only in 
course of time to be led into a third. And so it went on 
for some hours. We seemed to be in a stone labyrinth 
which led nowhere. What all these passages are, of 
course I cannot say, but we thought that they must be the 
ancient workings of a mine, of which the various shafts 
travelled hither and thither as the ore led them. This is 
the only way in which we could account for such a multi- 
tude of passages. 

At length we halted, thoroughly worn out with fatigue, 
and with that hope deferred which maketh the heart sick, 
and ate up our poor remaining piece of biltong, and drank 
our last sup of water, for our throats were like lime-kilns. 
It seemed to us that we had escaped Death in the dark- 
ness of the chamber only to meet him in the darkness of 
the tunnels. 

As we stood, once more utterly depressed, I thought I 
caught a sound, to which I called the attention of the 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


253 


others. It was very faint and very far off, but it was a 
sound, a faint, murmuring sound, for the others heard it 
too, and no words can describe the blessedness of it after 
all those hours of utter, awful stillness. 

‘‘By Heaven! it’s running water,” said Good. “Come 
on.” 

Off we started again in the direction from which the 
faint murmur seemed to come, groping our way as before 
along the rocky walls. As we went it got more and more 
audible, till at last it seemed quite loud in the quiet. On, 
yet on; now we could distinctly make out the unmistak- 
able swirl of rushing water. And yet how could there be 
running water in the bowels of the earth? Now we were 
quite near to it, and Good, who was leading, swore that he 
could smell it. 

“ Go gently. Good,” said Sir Henry, “ we must be close.” 
Splash ! and a cry from Good. 

He had fallen in. 

“Good! Good! where are you?” we shouted, in terri- 
fied distress. To our intense relief, an answer came back 
in a choky voice. 

“All right; I’ve got hold of a rock. Strike a light to 
show me where you are.” 

Hastily I lit the last remaining match. Its faint gleam 
discovered to us a dark mass of water running at our feet. 
How wide it was we could not see, but there, some way 
out, was the dark form of our companion hanging on to a 
projecting rock. 

“Stand clear to catch me,” sung out Good. “I must 
swim for it.” 

Then we heard a splash and a great struggle. Another 
minute and he had grabbed at and caught Sir Henry’s out- 


264 KING Solomon’s mines. 

stretched hand, and we had pulled him up high and dry 
into the tunnel. 

“ My word !” he said, between his gasps, “ that was 
touch and go. If I hadn’t caught that rock, and known 
how to swim, I shoul'^ have been done. It runs like a 
mill-race, and I could feel no bottom.” 

It was clear that this would not do; so after Good had 
rested a little, and we had drunk our fill from the water 
of the subterranean river, which was sweet and fresh, and 
washed our faces, which sadly needed it, as well as we 
could, we started from the banks of this African Styx, and 
began to retrace our steps along the tunnel. Good drip- 
ping unpleasantly in front of us. At length we came to 
another tunnel leading to our right. 

“We may as well take it,” said Sir Henry, wearily; 
“all roads are alike here; we can only go on till we 
drop.” 

Slowly, for a long, long while, we stumbled, utterly 
weary, along this new tunnel. Sir Henry leading now. 

Suddenly he stopped, and we bumped up against him. 

“ Look !” he whispered, “ is my brain going, or is that 
light?” 

We stared with all our eyes, and there, yes, there, far 
ahead of us, was a faint glimmering spot, no larger than 
a cottage window - pane. It was so faint that I doubt 
if any eyes, except those which, like ours, had for days 
seen nothing but blackness, could have perceived it at 
all. 

With a sort of gasp of hope we pushed on. In five 
minutes there was no longer any doubt: it was a patch of 
faint light. A minute more and a breath of real live air 
was fanning us. On we struggled. All at once the tun- 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


265 


nel narrowed. Sir Henry went on his knees. Smaller 
yet it grew, till it was only the size of a large fox’s earth 
— it was earth now, mind you; the rock had ceased. 

A squeeze, a struggle, and Sir Henry was out, and so 
was Good, and so was I, and theife above us were the 
blessed stars, and in our nostrils was the sweet air; then 
suddenly something gave, and we were all rolling over 
and over and over through grass and bushes and soft, wet 
soil. 

I caught at something and stopped. Sitting up, I 
halloed lustily. An answering shout came from just be- 
low, where Sir Henry’s wild career had been stopped by 
some level ground. I scrambled to him, and found him 
unhurt, though breathless. Then we looked for Good. 
A little way off we found him, too, jammed in a forked 
root. He was a good deal knocked about, but soon 
came to. 

We sat down together there on the grass, and the revul- 
sion of feeling was so great that I really think we cried 
for joy. We had escaped from that awful dungeon, that 
was so near to becoming our grave. Surely some merci- 
ful Power must have guided our footsteps to the jackal - 
hole at the termination of the tunnel (for that is what it 
must have been). And see, there on the mountains, the 
dawn we had never thought to look upon again was blush- 
ing rosy red. 

Presently the gray light stole down the slopes, and we 
saw that we were at the bottom, or, rather, nearly at the 
bottom, of the vast pit in front of the entrance to the 
cave. Now we could make out the dim forms of the three 
colossi who sat upon its verge. Doubtless those awiul 
passages, along which we had wandered the iiveiong night, 


256 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


had originally been, in some way, connected with the great 
diamond mine. As for the subterranean river in the bow- 
els of the mountain. Heaven only knows what it was, or 
whence it flows, or whither it goes. I, for one, have no 
anxiety to trace its course. 

Lighter it grew, and lighter yet. We could see each 
other now, and such a spectacle as we presented I have 
never set eyes on before or since. Gaunt-cheeked, hollow- 
eyed wretghes, smeared all over with dust and mud, 
bruised, bleeding, the long fear of imminent death yet 
written on our countenances, we were, indeed, a sight to 
frighten the daylight. And yet it is a solemn fact that 
Good’s eye-glass was still fixed in Good’s eye. I doubt 
whether he had ever taken it out at all. Neither the 
darkness, nor the plunge in the subterranean river, nor the 
roll down the slope, had been able to separate Good and 
his eye-glass. 

Presently we rose, fearing that our limbs would stiffen 
if we stopped there longer, and commenced with slow and 
painful steps to struggle up the sloping sides of the great 
pit. For an hour or more we toiled steadfastly up the 
blue clay, dragging ourselves on by the help of the roots 
and grasses with which it was clothed. 

At last it was done, and we stood on the great road, on 
the side of the pit opposite to the colossi. 

By the side of the road, a hundred yards off, a fire was 
burning in front of some huts, and round the fire were 
figures. We made towards them, supporting one another, 
and halting every few paces. Presently, one of the fig- 
ures rose, saw us, and fell on to the ground, crying out for 
fear. 

“ Infadoos, Infadoos ! it is us, thy friends,” 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


257 


We rose; he ran to us, staring wildly, and still shaking 
with fear. 

“ Oh, my lords, my lords, it is indeed you come back 
from the dead ! — come back from the dead !” 

And the old warrior flung himself down before us, and 
clasped Sir Henry’s knees, and wept aloud for joy. 

17 


CHAPTER XIX. 

rONOSl’s FAREWELL. 

Ten days from that eventful morning found us once 
more in our old quarters at Loo ; and, strange to say, but 
little the worse for our terrible experience, except that my 
stubbly hair came out of that cave about three shades 
grayer than it went in, and that Good never was quite the 
same after Foulata’s death, which seemed to move him 
very greatly. I am bound to say that, looking at the 
thing from the point of view of an oldish man of the 
world, I consider her removahwas a fortunate occurrence, 
since, otherwise, complications would have been sure to 
ensue. The poor creature was no ordinary native girl, 
but a person of great, I had almost said stately, beauty, 
and of considerable refinement of mind. But no amount 
of beauty or refinement could have made an entanglement 
between Good and herself a desirable occurrence; for, as 
she herself put it, ‘‘ Can the sun mate with the darkness, 
or the white with the black ?” 

I need hardly state that we never again penetrated into 
Solomon’s treasure - chamber. After we had recovered 
from our fatigues, a process which took us forty - eight 
hours, we descended into the great pit in the hope of 
finding the hole by which we had crept out of the moun- 
tain, but with no success. To begin with, rain had fallen, 
and obliterated our spoor; and what is more, the sides of 
the vast pit were full of ant-bear and other holes. It was 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


269 


impossible to say to which of these we owed our salva- 
tion. W e also, on the day before we started back to Loo, 
made a further examination of the wonders of the stalac- 
tite cave, and, drawn by a kind of restless feeling, even 
penetrated once more into the Chamber of the Dead; and, 
passing beneath the spear of the white Death, gazed, with 
sensations which it would be quite impossible for me to 
describe, at the mass of rock which had shut us off from 
escape, thinking, the while, of the priceless treasures be- 
yond, of the mysterious old hag whose flattened frag- 
ments lay crushed beneath it, and of the fair girl of whose 
tomb it was the portal. I say gazed at the “ rock,” for 
examine as we would we could find no traces of the join 
of the sliding door; nor, indeed, could we hit upon the 
secret, now utterly lost, thq± worked it, though we tried 
for an hour or more. It was certainly a marvellous bit 
of mechanism, characteristic, in its massive and yet inscru- 
table simplicity, of the age which produced it; and I doubt 
if the world has such another to show. 

At last we gave it up in disgust; though, if the mass 
had suddenly risen before our eyes, I doubt if we should 
have screwed up courage to step over Gagool’s mangled 
remains and once more enter the treasure-chamber, even 
in the sure and certain hope of unlimited diamonds. And 
yet I could have cried at the idea of leaving all that treas- 
ure, the biggest treasure probably that has ever in the 
world’s history been accumulated in one spot. But there 
was no help for it. Only dynamite could force its way 
through five feet of solid rock. And so we left it. Per- 
haps, in some remote unborn century, a more fortunate 
explorer may hit upon the Open Sesame,” and flood the 
world with gems. But, myself, I doubt it. Somehow, I 


260 


KING Solomon’s mNiss. 


seem to feel that the millions of pounds’ worth of gems 
that lie in the three stone coffers will never shine round 
the neck of an earthly beauty. They and Foulata’s bones 
will keep cold company till the end of all things. 

With a sigh of disappointment we made our way back, 
and next day started for Loo. And yet it was really very 
ungrateful of us to be disappointed; for, as the reader 
will remember, I had, by a lucky thought, taken the pre- 
caution to fill the pockets of my old shooting-coat with 
gems before we left our prison-house. A good many of 
these fell out in the course of our roll down the side of the 
pit, including most of the big ones, which I had crammed 
in on the top. But, comparatively speaking, an enormous 
quantity still remained, including eighteen large stones 
ranging from about one hundred to thirty carats in weight. 
My old shooting-coat still held enough treasure to make 
us all, if not millionaires, at least exceedingly wealthy 
men, and yet to keep enough stones each to make the three 
finest sets of gems in Europe. So we had not done so 
badly. 

On arriving at Loo we were most cordially received by 
Ignosi, whom we found well, and busily engaged in con- 
solidating his power and reorganizing the regiments which 
had suffered most in the great struggle with Twala. 

He listened with breathless interest to our wonderful 
story; but when we told him of old Gagool’s frightful end, 
he grew thoughtful. 

‘‘ Come hither,” he called, to a very old Induna (coun- 
cillor), who was sitting with others in a circle round the 
king, but out of ear-shot. The old man rose, approached, 
saluted, and seated himself. 

“ Thou art old,” said Ignosi. 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


261 


“ Ay, my lord the king !” 

“Tell me, when thou was little, didst thou know Ga- 
gaoola, the witch doctress ?” 

“ Ay, my lord the king !” 

“ How was she then — young, like thee ?” 

“ Not so, my lord the king ! She was even as nowj old 
and dried, very ugly, and full of wickedness.” 

“She is no more; she is dead.” 

“ So, O king ! then is a curse taken from the land.” 

“ Go !” 

“ Koom ! I go, black puppy, who tore out the old dog’s 
throat. Koom /” 

“Ye see, my brothers,” said Ignosi, “this was a strange 
woman, and I rejoice that she is dead. She would have 
let ye die in the dark place, and mayhap afterwards she 
had found a way to slay me, as she found a way to slay 
my father and set up Twala, whom her heart loved, in 
his place. Now go on with the tale; surely there never 
was the like !” 

After I had narrated all the story of our escape, I, as 
we had agreed between ourselves that I should, took the 
opportunity to address Ignosi as to our departure from 
Kukuanaland. 

“ And now, Ignosi, the time has come for us to bid thee 
farewell, and start to seek once more our own land. Be- 
hold, Ignosi, with us thou earnest a servant, and now we 
leave thee a mighty king. If thou art grateful to us, re- 
member to do even as thou didst promise; to rule justly, 
to respect the law, and to put none to death without a 
cause. So shalt thou prosper. To-morrow, at break of 
day, Ignosi, wilt thou give us an escort who shall lead us 
across the mountains ? Is it not so, O king?” 


262 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


Ignosi covered his face with his hands for a while before 
answering. 

‘‘My heart is sore,” he said at last; “your words split 
my heart in twain. What have I done to ye, Incubu, 
Macumazahn, and Bougwan, that ye should leave me des- 
olate? Ye who stood by me in rebellion and battle, will 
ye leave me in the day of peace and victory ? What will 
ye — wives ? Choose from out the land ! A place to live 
in? Behold, the land is yours as far as ye can see. The 
white man’s houses? Ye shall teach my people how to 
build them. Cattle for beef and milk? Every married 
man shall bring ye an ox or a cow. Wild game to hunt ? 
Does not the elephant walk through my forests, and the 
river-horse sleej:) in the reeds ? Would ye make war ? My 
Impis (regiments) wait your word. If there is anything 
more that I can give, that will I give ye.” 

“Nay, Ignosi, we want not these things,” I answered; 
“ we would seek our own place.” 

“ Now do I perceive,” said Ignosi, bitterly, and with 
flashing eyes, “ that it is the bright stones that ye love 
more than me, your friend. Ye have the stones ; now 
would ye go to Natal and across the black' water and sell 
them, and be rich, as it is the desire of a white man’s heart 
to be. Cursed for your sake be the stones, and cursed he 
who seeks them. Death shall it be to him who sets foot 
in the Place of Death to seek them. I have spoken, white 
men; ye can go.” 

I laid my hand upon his arm. “Ignosi,”! said, “tell 
us, when thou didst wander in Zululand, and among the 
white men in Natal, did not thine heart turn to the land 
thy mother told thee of, thy native land, where thou didst 
see the light, and play when thou wast little, the land where 
thy place was ?” 


KING Solomon’s minks. 


263 


“It was even so, Macumazahn.” 

“ Then thus does our heart turn to our land and to our 
own place.” 

Then came a pause. When Ignosi broke it, it was in a 
different voice. 

“ I do perceive that thy words are, now as ever, wise 
and full of reason, Macumazahn; that which flies in the 
air loves not to run along the ground; the white man loves 
not to live on the level of the black. W ell, ye must go, 
and leave my heart sore, because ye will be as dead to me, 
since from where ye will be no tidings can come to me. 

“ But listen, and let all the white men know my words. 
No other white man shall cross the mountains, even if any 
may live to come so far. I will see no traders with their 
guns and rum. My people shall fight with the spear and 
drink water, like their forefathers before them. I will 
have no praying-men to put fear of death into men’s hearts, 
to stir them up against the king, and make a path for the 
white men who follow to run on. If a white man comes 
to my gates I will send him back; if a hundred come, I 
will push them back; if an army comes, I will make war 
on them with all my strength, and they shall not prevail 
against me. None shall ever come for the shining stones; 
no, not an army, for if they come I will send a regiment 
and fill up the pit, and break down the white columns in 
the caves and fill them with rocks, so that none can come 
even to that door of which ye speak, and whereof the way 
to move it is lost. But for ye three, Incubu, Macumazahn, 
and Bougwan, the path is always open; for behold, ye are 
dearer to me than aught that breathes. 

“And ye would go. Infadoos, my uncle, and my In- 
duna, shall take thee by the hand and guide thee, with a 


364 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


regiment. There is, as I have learned, another way across 
the mountains that he shall show ye. Farewell, my broth- 
ers, brave white men. See me no more, for I have no heart 
to bear it. Behold, I make a decree, and it shall be pub- 
lished from the mountains to the mountains, your names, 
Incubu, Macumazahn, and Bougwan, shall be as the names 
of dead kings, and he who speaks them shall die.* So shall 
your memory be preserved in the land forever. 

“ Go, now, ere my eyes rain tears like a woman’s. At 
times when ye look back down the path of life, or when 
ye are old and gather yourselves together to crouch before 
the fire, because the sun has no more heat, ye will think of 
how we stood shoulder to shoulder in that great battle that 
thy wise words planned, Macumazahn ; of how thou wast 
the point of that horn that galled Twala’s flank, Bougwan; 
whilst thou stoodst in the ring of the Grays, Incubu, and 
men went down before thine axe like corn before a sickle; 
ay, and of how thou didst break the wild bull’s (Twala’s) 
strength, and bring his pride to dust. Fare ye well for- 
ever, Incubu, Macumazahn, and Bougwan, my lords and 
my friends.” 

He rose, looked earnestly at us for a few seconds, and 
then threw the corner of his kaross over his head, so as to 
cover his face from us. 

We went in silence. 

Next day at dawn we left Loo, escorted by our old friend 
Infadoos, who was heart-broken at our departure, and the 

♦ This extraordinary and negative way of showing intense respect is by 
no means unknown among African people, and the result is that if, as is 
usual, the name in question has a significance, the meaning has to be ex- 
pressed by an idiom or another word. In this way a memory is preserved 
for generations, or until the new word supplants the old one. 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


20 , 


regiment of Buffaloes. Early as the hour was, all the 
main street of the town was lined with multitudes of peo- 
ple, who gave us the royal salute as we passed at the head 
of the regiment, while the women blessed us as having rid 
the land of Twala, throwing flowers before us as we went. 
It really was very affecting, and not the sort of thing one 
is accustomed to meet with from natives. 

One very ludicrous incident occurred, however, which I 
rather welcomed, as it gave us something to laugh at. 

Just before we got to the confines of the town a pretty 
young girl, with some beautiful lilies in her hand, came 
running forward and presented them to Good (somehow 
they all seemed to like Good; I think his eye-glass and 
solitary whisker gave him a fictitious value), and then said 
she had a boon to ask. 

“Speak on.” 

“ Let my lord show his servant his beautiful white legs, 
that his servant may look on them, and remember them all 
her days, and tell of them to her children; his servant has 
travelled four days’ journey to see them, for the fame of 
them has gone throughout the land.” 

“ I’ll be hanged if I do !” said Good, excitedly. 

“ Come, come, my dear fellow,” said Sir Henry, “ you 
can’t refuse to oblige a lady.” 

“I won’t,” said Good, obstinately; “it is positively in- 
decent.” 

However, in the end he consented to draw up his trousers 
to the knee, amidst notes of rapturous admiration from all 
the women present, especially the gratified young lady, and 
in this guise he had to walk till we got clear of the town. 

Good’s legs will, I fear, never be so greatly admired 
again. Of his melting teeth, and even of his “trans- 


266 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


parent eye,” they wearied more or less, but of his legs, 
never. 

As we travelled, Infadoos told us that there was another 
pass over the mountains to the north of the one followed 
by Solomon’s Great Road, or rather that there was a place 
where it was possible to climb down the wall of cliff that 
separated Kukuan aland from the desert, and was broken 
by' the towering shapes of Sheba’s breasts. It appeared, 
too, that rather more than two years previously a party of 
Kukuana hunters had descended this path into the desert 
in search of ostriches, whose plumes were much prized 
among them for war head - dresses, and that in the course 
of their hunt they had been led far from the mountains, 
and were much troubled by thirst. Seeing, however, trees 
on the horizon, they made towards them, and discovered a 
large and fertile oasis of some miles in extent, and plenti- 
fully watered. It was by way of this oasis that he suggest- 
ed that we should return, and the idea seemed to us a good 
one, as it appeared that we should escape the rigors of the 
mountain pass, and as some of the hunters were in attend- 
ance to guide us to the oasis, from which, they stated, they 
could perceive more fertile spots far away in the desert.* 

* It often puzzled all of us to understand how it was possible that 
Ignosi’s mother, bearing the child with her, should have survived the 
dangers of the journey across the mountains and the desert, dangers which 
so nearly proved fatal to ourselves. It has since occurred to me, and I 
give the idea to the reader for what it is worth, that she must have taken 
this second route, and wandered out like Hagar into the desert. If she 
did so, there is no longer anything inexplicable about the story, since she 
may well, as Ignosi himself related, have been picked up by some ostrich- 
hunters before she or the child were exhausted, and led by them to the 
oasis, and thence by stages to the fertile country, and so on by slow de- 
grees southward to Zululand. — A. Q. 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


267 


Travelling easily, on the night of the fourth day’s jour- 
ney we found ourselves once more on the crest of the 
mountains that separate Kukuanaland from the desert, 
which rolled away in sandy billows at our feet, and about 
twenty-five miles to the north of Sheba’s breasts. 

At dawn on the following day we were led to the com- 
mencement of a precipitous descent, by which we were to 
descend the precipice, and gain the desert two thousand 
and more feet below. 

Here we bade farewell to that true friend and sturdy old 
warrior, Infadoos, who solemnly wished all good upon us, 
and nearly wept with grief. ‘‘ Never, my lords,” he said, 
“ shall mine old eyes see the like of ye again. Ah ! the 
way that Incubu cut his men down in the battle ! Ah ! 
for the sight of that stroke with which he swept off my 
brother Twala’s head ! It was beautiful — beautiful ! I 
may never hope to see such another, except perchance in 
happy dreams.” 

We were very sorry to part from him; indeed. Good was 
so moved that he gave him as a souvenir — what do you 
think ? — an eye-glass. (Afterwards we discovered that it 
was a spare one.) Infadoos was delighted, foreseeing that 
the possession of such an article would enormously increase 
his prestige, and after several vain attempts actually suc- 
ceeded in screwing it into his own eye. Anything more 
incongruous than the old warrior looked with an eye-glass 
I never saw. Eye-glasses don’t go well with leopard-skin 
cloaks and black ostrich plumes. 

Then, having seen that our guides were well laden with 
water and provisions, and having received a thundering 
farewell salute from the Buffaloes, we wrung the old war- 
rior’s hand, and began our downward climb. A very 


268 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


arduous business it proved to be, but somehow that even- 
ing we found ourselves at the bottom without accident. 

“ Do you know,” said Sir Henry that night, as we sat 
by our fire and gazed up at the beetling cliffs above us, 
“ I think that there are worse places than Kukuanaland in 
the world, and that I have spent unhappier times than the 
last month or two, though I have never spent such queer 
ones. Eh ! you fellows ?” 

“ I almost wish I were back,” said Good, with a sigh. 

As for myself, I reflected that all’s well that ends well; 
but in the course of a long life of shaves I never had such 
shaves as those I had recently experienced. The thought 
of that battle still makes me feel cold all over, and as for 
our experience in the treasure-chamber — ! 

Next morning we started on a toilsome march across the 
desert, having with us a good supply of water carried by 
our five guides, and camped that night in the open, start- 
ing again at dawn on the moiTow. 

By midday of the third day’s journey we could see the 
trees of the oasis of which the guides spoke, and by an 
hour before sundown we were once more walking upon 
grass and listening to the sound of running water. 


CHAPTER XX. 


FOUND. 

And now I come to perhaps the strangest thing that 
happened to us in all that strange business, and one which 
shows how wonderfully things are brought about. 

I was walking quietly along, some way in front of the 
other two, down the banks of the stream which ran from 
the oasis till it was swallowed up in the hungry desert 
sands, when suddenly I stopped and rubbed my eyes, as 
well I might. There, not twenty yards in front, placed in 
a charming situation, under the shade of a species of fig- 
tree, and facing to the stream, was a cosey hut, built more 
or less on the Kaffir principle of grass and withes, only with 
a full-length door instead of a bee-hole. 

“ What the dickens,” said I to myself, can a hut bo 
doing here !” Even as I said it, the door of the hut 
opened, and there limped out of it a white man clothed in 
skins, and with an enormous black beard. I thought that 
I must have got a touch of the sun. It was impossible. 
Ko hunter ever came to such a place as this. Certainly 
no hunter would ever settle in it. I stared and stared, and 
so did the other man, and just at that juncture Sir Henry 
and Good came up. 

“ Look here, you fellows,” I said, “ is that a white man, 
or am I mad ?” 

Sir Henry looked, and Good looked, and then all of a 
sudden the lame white man with the black beard gave a 


2V0 


KING Solomon’s mines. 


great cry, and came hobbling towards us. When he got 
close be fell down in a sort of faint. 

With a spring Sir Henry was by bis side. 

Great Powers !” he cried, it is my brother George P'* 

At the sound of the disturbance another figure, also clad 
in skins, emerged from the but with a gun in bis band, and 
came running towards us. On seeing me be too gave a cry. 

“ Macumazahn,” he halloed, ‘‘ don’t you know me. Baas ? 
I’m Jim, the hunter. I lost the note you gave me to give 
to the Baas, and we have been here nearly two years.” 
And the fellow fell at my feet and rolled over and over^ 
weeping for joy.” 

“You careless scoundrel!” I said; “you ought to be 
well bided.” 

Meanwhile the man. with the black beard bad recovered 
and got up, and be and Sir Henry were pump-handling 
away at each other, apparently without a word to say. 
But whatever they had quarrelled about in the past (I 
suspect it was a lady, though I never asked), it was evi- 
dently forgotten now. 

“ My dear old fellow,” burst out Sir Henry at last, “ I 
thought that you were dead. 1 have been over Solomon’s 
Mountains to find you, and now I come across you perched 
in the desert, like an old Aasvogel (vuiture).” 

“ I tried to go over Solomon’s Mountains nearly two 
years ago,” was the answer, spoken in the hesitating voice 
of a man who has had little recent opportunity of using his 
tongue, “ but when I got here, a boulder fell on my leg and 
crushed it, and I have been able to go neither forward nor 
back.” 

Then I came up. “How do you do, Mr. Neville?” I 
said; “do you remember me ?” 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 


271 


“ Why,” he said, ^4sn’t it Quatermain, eh, and Good, too ? 
Hold on a minute, you fellows, I am getting dizzy again. 
It is all so very strange, and, when a man has ceased to hope, 
so very happy.” 

That evening, over the camp-fire, George Curtis told us 
his story, which, in its way, was almost as eventful as our 
own, and amounted, shortly, to this. A little short of two 
years before, he had started from Sitanda’s Kraal, to try 
and reach the mountains. As for the note I had sent him 
by Jim, that worthy had lost it, and he had never heard of 
it till to-day. But, acting upon information he had received 
from the natives, he made, not for Sheba’s breasts, but for 
the ladder-like descent of the mountains down which we 
had just come, which was clearly a better route than that 
marked out in old Don Silvestra’s plan. In the desert he 
and Jim suffered great hardships, but finally they reached 
this oasis, where a terrible accident befell George Curtis. 
On the day of their arrival he was sitting by the stream, 
and Jim was extracting the honey from the nest of a sting- 
less bee, which is to be found in the desert, on the top of 
the bank immediately above him. In so doing he loosed a 
great boulder of rock, which fell upon George Curtis’s right 
leg, crushing it frightfully. From that day he had been so 
dreadfully lame that he had found it impossible to go either 
forward or back, and had preferred to take the chances of 
dying on the oasis to the certainty of 23erishing in the desert. 

As for food, however, they had got on pretty well, for 
they had a good supply of ammunition, and the oasis was 
frequented, especially at night, by large quantities of game, 
which came thither for water. These they shot, or trapped 
in pitfalls, using their flesh for food and, after their clothes 
wore out, their hides for covering. 


2^2 


KING SOLOMON'S MINEST. 


And so,” he ended, ‘‘ we have lived for nearly two years, 
like a second Robinson Crusoe and his man Friday, hoping 
against hope that some natives might come here and help 
us away, but none have come. Only last night we settled 
that Jim should leave me and try to reach Sitanda’s Kraal 
and get assistance. He was to go to-morrow, but I had 
little hope of ever seeing him back again. And now you^ 
of all the people in the world, you who I fancied had long 
ago forgotten all about me, and were living comfortably 
in old England, turn up in a promiscuous way and find me 
where you least expected. It is the most wonderful thing 
I ever heard of, and the most merciful, too.” 

Then Sir Henry set to work and told him the main facts 
of our adventures, sitting till late into the night to do it. 

“By Jove !” he said, when I showed him some of the 
diamonds; “ well, at least you have got something for your 
pains, besides my worthless self.” 

Sir Henry laughed. “ They belong to Quatermain and 
Good. It was part of the bargain that they should share 
any spoils there might be.” 

This remark set me thinking, and, having spoken to Good, 
I told Sir Henry that it was our unanimous wish that he 
should take a third share of the diamonds, or, if he would 
not, that his share should be handed to his brother, who had 
suffered even more than ourselves on the chance of getting 
them. Finally, we prevailed upon him to consent to this 
arrangement, but George Curtis did not know of it till 
some time afterwards. 

And here, at this point, I think I shall end this history. 
Our journey across the desert back to Sitanda’s Kraal was 
most arduous, especially as we had to support George Cur- 


273 


KING Solomon’s mines. 

tis, whose right leg was very weak indeed, and continu- 
ally throwing out splinters of bone; but we did accomplish 
it, somehow, and to give its details would only be to repro- 
duce much of what happened to us on the former occasion. 

Six months from the date of our re-arrival at Sitanda’s, 
where we found our guns and other goods quite safe, 
though the old scoundrel in charge was much disgusted at 
our surviving to claim them, saw us all once more safe and 
sound at my little place on the Berea, near Durban, where 
I am now writing, and whence I bid farewell to all who 
have accompanied me throughout the strangest trip I ever 
made in the course of a long and varied experience. 

Just as I had written the last word a Kaffir came up my 
avenue of orange-trees, with a letter in a cleft stick, which 
he had brought from the post. It turned out to be from 
Sir Henry, and, as it speaks for itself, I give it in full. 

“ Brayley Hall, Yorkshire. 

“ My dear Quatermain, — I sent you a line a few mails back to say 
that the three of us, George, Good, and myself, fetched up all right in Eng- 
land. We got oif the boat at Southampton, and went up to town. You 
should have seen what a swell Good turned out the very next day, beauti- 
fully shaved, frock coat fitting like a glove, brand-new eye-glass, etc., etc. 
I went and walked in the park with him, where I met some people I know, 
and at once told them the story of his ‘ beautiful white legs.’ 

“ He is furious, especially as some ill-natured person has printed it in a 
society paper. 

“ To come to business. Good and I took the diamonds to Streeter’s to be 
valued, as we arranged, and I am really afraid to tell you what they put 
them at, it seems so enormous. They say that of course it is more or less 
guess-work, as such stones have never to their knowledge been put on the 
market in anything like such quantities. It appears that they are (with 
the exception of one or two of the largest) of the finest water, and equal 
in every way to the best Brazilian stones. I asked them if they would buy 
them, but they said that it was beyond their power to do so, and recom- 
18 


'274 


KINO SOLOMON S MINES. 


mended us to sell by degrees, for fear we should flood the market. They 
offer, however, a hundred and eighty thousand for a small portion of them. 

“ You must come home, Quatermain, and see about these things, especial- 
ly if you insist upon making the magnificent present of the third share, 
which does not belong to me, to my brother George. As for Good, he is 
no good. His time is too much occupied in shaving, and other matters 
connected with the vain adorning of his, body. But I think he is still 
down on his luck about Foulata. He told me that since he had been home 
he hadn’t seen a woman to touch her, either as regards her figure or the 
sweetness of her expression. 

“ I want you to come home, my dear old comrade, and buy a place near 
here. You have done your day’s work, and have lots of money now, and 
there is a place for sale quite close which would suit you admirably. Do 
come ; the sooner the better ; you can finish writing the story of our ad- 
ventures on board ship. We have refused to tell the story till it is written 
by you, for fear that we shall not be believed If you start on receipt of 
this you will reach here by Christmas, and I book you to stay with me for 
that. Good is coming, and George, and so, by the way, is your boy Harry 
(there’s a bribe for you). I have had him down for a week’s shooting, and 
like him. He is a cool young hand ; he shot me in the leg, cut out the 
pellets, and then remarked upon the advantage of having a medical student 
in every shooting-party. 

“ Good-bye, old boy ; I can’t say any more, but I know that you will 
come, if it is only to oblige your sincere friend, Henry Curtis. 

“ P.S. — The tusks of the great bull that killed poor Khiva have now 
been put up in the hall here, over the pair of buffalo-horns you gave me, 
and look magnificent; and the axe with which I chopped off Twala’s head 
is stuck up over my writing-table. I wish we could have managed to 
bring away the coats of chain armor. H. C.” 

To-day is Tuesday. There is a steamer going on Friday, 
and I really think I must take Curtis at his word, and sail 
by her for England, if it is only to see my boy Harry and 
see about the printing of this history, which is a task I do 
not like to trust to anybody else. 


THE END. 


THE ALLAN QUATERMAIN ROMANCES 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES 

By SIR H. RIDER HAGGARD. Crown 8vo. $1.50 net. 

A romance that fairly bristles with excitement from beginning 
to end. The story of the quest of King Solomon's Ophir, full of 
sensational fights, blood-curdling perils and extraordinary escapes. 

THE IVORY CHILD 

By SIR H. RIDER HAGGARD. With illustrations. Crown 8vo. 
$1.60 net. 

“ ... it is enough to say that when Allan Quatermain, in 
the opening sentence of his narrative, speaks of this as ‘ one of 
the strangest of all the adventures which have befallen me in the 
course of a life, that so far can scarcely be called tame or hum- 
drum,’ he is well within the mark . . . handled in Sir Rider 
Haggard’s best manner.” — The Spectator — London. 

ALLAN QUATERMAIN 

By SIR H. RIDER HAGGARD. With 20 illustrations and a 
portrait. Crown 8vo. $1.35 net. 

“ Haggard has created one of the outstanding characters of 
contemporary fiction, Allan Quatermain.” — New York World. 

ALLAN’S WIFE, and Other Tales 
' By SIR H. RIDER HAGGARD. With 34 illustrations. Crown 
8vo. $1.35 net. 

ALLAN AND THE HOLY FLOWER 

By SIR H. RIDER HAGGARD. With 12 illustrations. Crown 
8vo. $1.50 net. 

This highly imaginative story has to do with Allan’s search, in 
company with an American physician, for a unique flower of mar- 
velous beauty and priceless value, presided over in the wilds of 
South Africa by a “ white goddess ” and guarded by a monstrous 
ape revered by the natives as a god. In the tale of the search. 
Sir Rider Haggard finds abundant opportunity for those touches 
of mystery and incidents of breathless adventure that have made 
his “ Allan Quatermain ” series so popular with two generations. 

“ The series of romances about Allan Quatermain . . . will 
some day be read even as the great series by Dumas is read. ...” 
— Cleveland Plain Dealer. 


LONGMANS, GREEN & CO. NEW YORK 


THE ALLAN QUATERMAIN ROMANCES 

FINISHED 

By SIR H. RIDER HAGGARD. With colored frontispiece and 
dust wrapper. Crown 8vo. $1.50 net. 


This book forms the third of the trilogy of which “ Marie 
and “ Child of Storm ” are the first two parts. It narrates, through 
the mouth of Allan Quatermain, the consummation of the venge- 
ance of the wizard Zikali upon the royal Zulu house of which 
Senzangacona was the founder and Cetewayo the last representa- 
tive who ruled as king. 


MARIE 


By SIR H. RIDER HAGGARD. With colored frontispiece and 

other illustrations. Crown 8vo. $1.50 net. 

The story of Allan Quatermain’s first love, Marie Marais — 
“Throughout the book runs a tender, beautiful and moving love 
story. . . . Marie is Quatermain’s wife only a little while, and 
then she makes the great sacrifice. . . . The time is far back, 
when the Boers began the great trek from Cape Colony, and the 
author says that in main all the historical parts of his story are 
true.” — New York Times. 

'‘Wt are disposed to regard ‘Marie' as one of the most 
exciting and interesting of all that cycle of romances which are 
concerned with that mighty hunter, Allan Quatermain.” — Spectator. 

CHILD OF STORM 

By SIR H. RIDER HAGGARD. With colored frontispiece and 

other illustrations. Crown 8vo. $1.50 net. 

“ An unusual story of the Zulus in all their superstitious mad- 
ness and blood-stained grandeur; of the time of the Impis and 
the witch-finders and the rival princes of the Royal House. The 
story of the fascinating and wicked Mameena is here told by 
Allan Quatermain and is the second of the three romances referred 
to in the Editor’s notes to Sir Rider Haggard’s lately published 
‘ Marie.’ ” 

“ Now that the Zulus are no longer a reigning nation and are 
doomed to go the way of all savage tribes, the trilogy of which 
‘ Child of Storm ’ is a part, ought to have an enduring value aside 
from its extraordinary romantic interest.” — Minneapolis Journal. 


LONGMANS, GREEN & CO. NEW YORK 

























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